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Clause IV
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==Tony Blair's alteration== [[File:Tony_Blair_in_2002.jpg|thumb|right|[[Tony Blair]], Labour leader 1994β2007 and Prime Minister 1997β2007]] [[Tony Blair]] had in 1993, before becoming Leader of the Labour Party, written a pamphlet for the [[Fabian Society]] which criticised the wording of Clause IV for not clearly stating the means and ends of the party.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Donadio |first1=Paolo |title=Old Clause IV vs. New Clause IV: linguistic / political analysis |url=http://www.federica.unina.it/economia/lingua-inglese-eco/old-clause-new-clause/ |website=federica.unina.it |access-date=27 September 2015}}</ref> Blair put forward a case for re-defining socialism in terms of a set of values which were constant, while the policies needed to achieve them would have to account for a changing society. At the conclusion of the 1994 conference, after becoming Leader, Blair proposed that the Labour Party needed a new statement of aims and values and stated that he would draw one up and present it to the party. This astonished many people, as the last time such a move had been taken in the late 1950s, it had been a failure.<ref name=IanAdams1/> The new version was adopted at a Special Conference at Easter 1995 following a debate, and reads, in part: {{cquote|The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few, where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe, and where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect.<ref name=IanAdams1/>}} This version of Clause IV {{as of|2015|alt=currently appears}} on the back of individual Labour Party membership cards today. Presentationally, the abandonment of the socialist principles of the original Clause IV represented a break with Labour's past and, specifically, a break with its 1983 Manifesto (dubbed "[[the longest suicide note in history]]", by [[Gerald Kaufman]], one of the party's MPs),<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3059773.stm |title=Foot's message of hope to left |last=Mann |first=Nyta |date=17 August 2003 |work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> in which greater state ownership was proposed.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|first=Alan|last=Travis|date=11 May 2017|title= 1983 v 2017: how Labour's manifestos compare|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/11/how-labours-2017-manifesto-compares-with-1983}}</ref>
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