Understanding Labour Party Management under Tony Blair

This article outlines and discusses the main features of Lewis Minkin’s book, The Blair Supremacy, subtitled ‘A Case Study of Labour’s party management’. These include Minkin’s exposition of New Labour’s managerial doctrine, the methods used to put it into effect and the resources deployed to support it. It assesses some of the problems New Labour’s party management encountered and the compromises it made. It both locates Minkin’s analysis of these issues within a debate concerning the nature of power and details the wider consequences for Labour politics of Tony Blair’s leadership of the party.