It has not helped Labour resolve the contradictions between women's traditional, and modern, roles.
Black jobseekers were shunned and the complicit Ministry of Labour resolved not to tell them about benefits to which they were entitled.
But, as a report launched today shows, even if the Labour leader resolves the issues exposed in Falkirk, his long-term problems will come from south of the border, and in particular how he deals with the question of Englishness.
An acute shortage of unskilled African labour was resolved by the importation of 60,000 Chinese, despite the bitter opposition of white workers, and ambitious schemes were hatched to reduce the cost of both black and white labour.
Weakened and divided by its May election defeat and temporarily rudderless as it awaits the election this fall of a new leader to succeed Mr. Brown, Labour has resolved to halt many of the changes by all means possible.
There will be some difficult issues ahead for Labour to resolve: the deficit reduction path, immigration caps, Trident, a European referendum, the 50p tax rate, making a reality of the localism agenda.
It is not clear what is wrong with a "labour shortage" being resolved in the way that markets resolve other shortages: ie the price of labour goes up until quantity supplied matches quantity demanded.
Other pastimes include standing in the long morning line at the federal agency in charge of resolving labour disputes, where workers crowd every day to file complaints that often take years to resolve.
This cultural self-accreditation is pernicious, and Labour should finally resolve to tackle it head-on.
The goal was a racially pure white South Africa, though the contradiction with the need for black labour was never resolved.
