What's wrong with Labour?

A critical history of the Labour Party in the 20th century

Paul Allender, Merlin Press, 220 pages, paperback, £12.95

This is a critical study of Labour's achievements and failures over the past hundred years, which begins by examining the views of various historians. It then devotes 36 pages to a brief history of the party, starting with the Labour Representation Committee initiated by the trade unions in 1900. It covers its constitution, adopted in 1918, the years of Ramsay Macdonald, the 1945 election of the Attlee government and its achievements (including the creation of the National Health Service), and the arguments about policies from the Wilson era of the 1960s onwards.

But the most fascinating section is that which deals with the labour movement in Sheffield from 1973-1998. This author was born and brought up in Sheffield and the story is based on interviews with many Labour and trade union participants.

It describes the activities of the Labour-controlled city council, the decline of the steel and engineering industries on which Sheffield had long depended and the huge factory closures, resulting in thousands of workers being made redundant. Much of this downfall was caused by the actions of the Thatcher government.