Mandelson sets out to revive 'Third Way'(Clinton, Blair, a international social democratic agenda)

MINISTERS and senior Labour figures will today begin drafting a route map to help Tony Blair to navigate a political landscape made still more hazardous by the global ructions over war in Iraq. They will be joined by around 100 centre-left thinkers from across Europe and the developing world for a two-day meeting in London convened by Peter Mandelson, one of the Prime Minister’s closest allies.

Their conclusions will form the basis of an agenda for Mr Blair’s Progressive Governance conference for world leaders in July, at which he intends to breathe new life into the Third Way philosophy first formulated with Bill Clinton almost ten years ago.

Mr Mandelson said last night that “the world has moved on” since those optimistic days, with growing economic uncertainty, electoral setbacks and rows over military action in Iraq.

“Progressives have to produce modern prescriptions to match. A reheated state socialism has nothing to offer people in an increasingly interdependent but also increasingly individualised world. This is an opportunity for the progressive politics we believe in to restate its relevance. In the meantime it will demonstrate a new unity of purpose after the centre-left divisions over Iraq.”

Senior government figures present at today’s meeting will include Patricia Hewitt, the Trade Secretary, Ian McCartney, the Labour chairman, Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, David Miliband, the Schools Minister, and Andrew Adonis, Downing Street’s policy director.

They will be joined by Wouter Bos, the Dutch Labour leader, Antonio Vitorino, the EU’s commissioner for justice and home affairs, as well as prominent politicians and strategists from from the US, Sweden, Italy, Turkey, Spain, Germany, South Africa and Ethiopia.

One of the key issues being debated today will be global governance in the aftermath of the Iraq war, which was bitterly opposed by countries such as France, Germany and Russia. The meeting is expected to discuss ways of moving beyond national interests by forming an international social democratic agenda.

However, the meeting will also consider issues such as immigration and public service reform. These have already wrecked centre-left governments and are expected to be the battleground on which Britain’s next general election will be fought.

Mr Blair is preparing for “domestic re-entry” with a major speech defending plans for foundation hospitals against threats of a mass revolt by Labour MPs. Today’s meeting is designed to inform this debate by discussing the limits of private sector involvement, as well as the conflict between local autonomy and equality.

The Third Way comes from the lexicon of the Left with a long, dishonorable pedigree. In the 1930s, Nazis used it to characterize their own brand of national socialism as a Third Way between the “internationalist” socialism of the Soviet bloc and the capitalism of the democracies of the West. Trotskyites used the Third Way as a term to distinguish their Marxism from Stalinism and from the capitalist democracies of the West. In the 1960s, New Leftists used the Third Way to define their politics as a socialism situated between the Soviet bloc and the capitalist democracies of the West.

But as the history of Nazism and Trotskyism and the New Left has shown, there is no Third Way. There is the democratic capitalist way, based on private property and individual rights, a way that leads to liberty and universal opportunity, and there is the socialist way of group identities, group rights, relentless growth of the state, restricted liberties, and diminished opportunities. The Third Way is just a suspension between these two destinations. It is not a goal in itself. It is a bad faith attempt to escape the taint that the Left’s actual achievements have earned.

Bill Clinton is a narcissist who is willing to sacrifice ideological principle for power because his vision is so filled with himself that he can no longer tell the difference. But those who serve him most loyally—the Harold Ickes, the feminists, the progressives, and, most of all, his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton—can tell the difference. They ride along for a very different reason: because they crave power to redeem the world. And for them, that noble end justifies all the sordid means.

David Horowitz is president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.
http://www.theamericanenterprise.org/taeja00j.htm

no he isn't.....

MINISTERS and senior Labour figures will today begin drafting a route map to help Tony Blair to navigate a political landscape made still more hazardous by the global ructions over war in Iraq. They will be joined by around 100 centre-left thinkers from across Europe and the developing world for a two-day meeting in London convened by Peter Mandelson, one of the Prime Minister’s closest allies.

Their conclusions will form the basis of an agenda for Mr Blair’s Progressive Governance conference for world leaders in July, at which he intends to breathe new life into the Third Way philosophy first formulated with Bill Clinton almost ten years ago.

snip

Mr Blair is preparing for “domestic re-entry” with a major speech defending plans for foundation hospitals against threats of a mass revolt by Labour MPs. Today’s meeting is designed to inform this debate by discussing the limits of private sector involvement, as well as the conflict between local autonomy and equality.

from story above..

and check this out too..

The Atlantic Monthly | March 2003

An E-mail Exchange With Tony Blair About Bill Clinton

by James Fallows

.....

QUESTION:
What sort of role does Bill Clinton play with world leaders who are still in office—and what weight do his public statements and his private counsel carry—now that he himself has left the presidency?

BLAIR:
President Clinton has a wealth of experience to offer as any modern President would do after eight years in the White House. So, of course, what he says—whether in public or private—carries weight with other leaders.

He also, of course, has remarkable energy. What's good is that he is using this experience and enthusiasm to continue pushing forward those issues he cares so passionately about such as education, peace, and the problems of Africa.

People listen because they know that he knows what he is talking about. And his intervention not only draws attention to these issues but can also help prompt action.

QUESTION:
What is the current state of "Third Way" thinking internationally? With Bill Clinton out of office and with Al Gore not succeeding him, and with the current emphasis on post September 11 policies and politics, how much is left of the "Third Way" movement?

BLAIR:
We recently held an international seminar here on the Third Way which drew political figures and policy makers from all over the world including, I'm delighted to say, President Clinton. I'm giving no secrets away by saying his contribution was, for many people, the highlight of the weekend.

I think anyone who attended would know that there is plenty of life left in the Third Way and that it is influencing policy strongly across the world. No one should be surprised about this. There has never been a time when it has been more important that we have thinking and policies which combine the need for addressing global security and global poverty, or for tackling social injustice and promoting business. What the Third Way is showing is that these goals are not in conflict, as some have suggested in the past, but must be achieved together.

QUESTION:
What sort of ongoing personal relationship exists between Mr. Clinton and Mr. Blair? How often do they talk? Is the prime minister's job in England noticeably different, with the change in U.S. partners to work with?

BLAIR:
I'm lucky to count President Clinton as a friend. We try to see each other when he is in Britain, with Cherie and Hillary too, who are also friends. And we catch up on the phone as well from time to time. We speak, of course, about politics and world affairs but I suspect we also spend more time talking about our families and other things, like friends do, than many people might expect.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/03/blair.htm

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