A Future for Socialism - Tapa dura

Bryan Gould maps out the course he believes will lead the Labour Party to success in the 1990s. He takes as his starting point Anthony Crosland's "The Future of Socialism" 1956 and analyzes the reasons for failure to foresee the right-wing triumphs of the 1980s. The author identifies the major challenges that face a Labour Party wishing to bring itself up to date, pointing to the internationalization of capital and its escape from political control, as one of the most intractable problems confronting modern socialists. While stressing traditional socialist virtues, he advocates a positive attitude to wealth creation, a readiness to use the market, provided it is regulated, and forms of common ownership which diffuse power to give both employees and consumers more control over their lives. Bryan Gould offers a vision of a socialism which fulfils the individual's desire for greater choice, prosperity and autonomy which is decentralized, pluralist, flexible and above all workable.

Bryan Gould was a New Zealand Rhodes scholar who entered the British Diplomatic Service in 1964 as the topentrant of his year. After a spell as a Fellow and Tutor in Law at Worcester College, Oxford, he was elected as Labour MP for Southampton Test in 1974. He spent four year reporting for Thames Television's TV Eye before returning to the Commons as Labour MP for Dagenham. He is the author of Socialism and Freedom (1985), co-author of Monetarism or Prosperity? (1981) and A Charter for the Disabled (1981).