The meeting is expected to discuss ways of moving beyond national interests by forming an international social democratic agenda.
Mandelson sets out to revive 'Third Way'
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
“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.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,635-658405,00.html Will Bush go along with this garbage?
Nah he would never support this BS.....(will he)
*****They will be joined by as well as prominent politicians and strategists from from the US*****
Morning Baghdad Bob.
Todd, I believe I asked you not to ping me, because I cannot seem to get reasonable discussion from you. No one says that Blair is a conservative; some, including myself, appreciate that he stood with the USA when we needed a friend from overseas. Get over it, please.