This would essentially lead to an expanded version of the "popular front" policies of the 1930s, with a number of CPs attempting to ingratiate themselves to the existing political establishment.
Articles were published in MT questioning the Left's opposition to consumerism, focus on material production and the industrial working class, and approach to Margaret Thatcher.
The movement had now reached its peak, with a huge influence on Neil Kinnock and later Tony Blair's reorientation of the Labour Party[citation needed].
The principal basis of New Times is, as the name suggests, the idea that the 1980s and 90s represent a significant break with previous history.
The transition from Fordism to Post-fordism is a key factor, as workers in western nations are no longer concentrated in large workplaces, but employed widely in the service and public sectors; blue collar jobs are replaced by white collar ones; and consumption is democratised to a far greater extent than previously.
Jacques, in the introduction to the MT special, writes that "at the heart of Thatcherism, has been its sense of New Times, of living in a new era... the Right has glimpsed the future and run with it."
In terms of concrete political positions, the NT milieu did not significantly differ from the wider Eurocommunist scene.
Those intellectuals who still identify with the New Times school are often very critical of Blair's alleged over-identification with Thatcherite policy.