[A-List] Tony speaks

[Mark Jones <markjones011@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The left should not weep if Saddam is toppled

We have to redefine centre-left politics to cope with a more insecure world

Tony Blair
Monday February 10, 2003
The Guardian

As centre-left politicians and policy-makers gather at 10 Downing Street 
today for the first of a series of meetings ahead of the progressive 
governance conference in July, attention is naturally focused on the 
possibility of conflict in Iraq. It is essential to spell out that the 
policy we have pursued over Iraq fits squarely with our vision of 
progressive politics and to make two key points.
First, the UN has laid down a clear instruction to Saddam to disarm, an 
instruction he could easily obey. If he disobeys it, the will of the UN 
must be upheld; otherwise it will become hard to argue for the UN as a 
means of dealing with these issues in the future.
Second, since Saddam's regime is - now the Taliban has fallen - probably 
the most brutal, oppressive and dictatorial in the world, and its principal 
victims are the Iraqi people, it would be odd for anyone on the left to 
shed tears at his departure. If that departure is in furtherance of the UN 
mandate, it should be supported strongly.
Our task should not be to shrink from full involvement in the battle 
against weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, but to broaden the 
agenda - to insist there is as much effort shown in pursuing peace in the 
Middle East, in action on world poverty, Africa and climate change. The 
next few months will determine whether we can make a difference. I believe 
we will.
It is international solidarity that has enabled Britain to lead the way on 
cancelling third world debt, increasing aid as a proportion of GDP and 
devising a strategy for development in Africa. In foreign policy, the 
government has moved beyond the traditional positions of old left and new 
right. The Conservatives cut our aid budget and isolated Britain in Europe. 
We have pursued some traditional Labour aims, for example on aid and 
development, but have also been prepared as with Kosovo and Afghanistan to 
take military action to uphold our values; and we have been clear that 
Britain's place lies at the heart of Europe.
Some have argued that "third way" politics is defined by what it is not - 
neither right nor left. That misunderstands our approach. It is modern 
social democracy, set firmly in the tradition of progressive left politics 
but drawing on the heritage of Keynes, Beveridge and Lloyd George as well 
as Attlee, Bevin and Bevan.
Our values - social justice, equality, solidarity - remain the same. We are 
applying them in a different way to a different world. The wave of 
liberalisation and technological advance has stimulated a new dynamic in 
global capitalism. The end of the cold war and the collapse of communism 
fuelled tremendous optimism in the west about the future. A decade on, we 
can discern the limits and tensions unleashed by globalisation.
We are witnessing increasing insecurity in all its forms: weapons of mass 
destruction and terrorism that knows no limit of scale or geography, the 
impact of migration and crime on our streets. In the global economy the 
optimism of the late 1990s has dissipated. Markets have fallen. The risks 
of deflation and slowdown are exacerbating structural problems in much of 
western Europe and Japan.
Now people look to the collective power of government to help. They know 
these insecurities can't be dealt with alone. But this is also a more 
individual age, where consumer choice, freedom in lifestyle and 
globalisation offer a range of opportunities our grandparents' generation 
never dreamed of. In addition, we know "big state" solutions can be just 
another form of vested interests, that producers don't always know best, 
that services can be provided by voluntary or private means as well as public.
As we defined it originally, the "third way" consisted of four distinctive 
stances, each taking progressive politics beyond the old dividing lines of 
left and right:
· On the economy, acceptance of fiscal disciplines together with investment 
in human capital, science and knowledge transfer.
· In civic society, a rights and responsibilities approach, strong on law 
and order but with social programmes to address the causes of crime.
· In public services, investment to ensure equality of opportunity, but 
also restructuring to provide more individually tailored services built 
around the needs of the modern consumer and to secure the public goods that 
markets, if left to themselves, could not provide.
· Foreign policy, robust on defence and committed to global justice.
These ideas enabled us to espouse positions that in the past the left had 
regarded as impossible to reconcile: patriotism and internationalism, 
rights and responsibilities, the promotion of enterprise and the attack on 
poverty and social injustice.
These ideas have attracted the support of a remarkable number of political 
leaders, successfully marginalised other currents on the left, and put the 
right on the defensive in the intellectual debate. They offered a bridge 
between New Democrats in the US and European social democrats. The third 
way banner has established itself as a central point of reference in 
debates on the future of the centre-left from continental Europe to Brazil 
and even China.
But while the third way provided a transatlantic bridge to the Clinton 
Democrats, US politics have changed fundamentally since September 11 and 
following the collapse of the dotcom bubble. Within Europe, the grip on 
power that governments of the modernising left enjoyed in the late 1990s 
has been weakened.
We need to renew progressive politics for today's world. In particular, we 
need to examine how we build a skilled workforce and enterprises able to 
move our economy up a gear, as low labour cost countries produce goods at 
lower prices. This is why investment in science and technology, reform of 
universities, fighting illiteracy and poor educational standards among 
adults, and more modern apprenticeships are essential.
We must tackle the injustice of poor public services, which are usually 
used by the poorest, by structural change as well as extra money. We need 
to see law and order as more than simply crime and punishment. We must also 
develop responsible citizenship that enables people to feel part of their 
own community.
Above all, we need to be more radical in dividing means from ends. The bane 
of the centre-left is confusion between the two. The objectives, values and 
beliefs never change. The means should change as the world changes.
People, the world over, are ready to accept these objectives and support 
these values, and are prepared to believe as we do that in an 
interdependent world we must support each other to minimise the 
insecurities and maximise the opportunities. What they doubt is whether we 
have the will to use whatever means are necessary to produce the results, 
and that we can renew centre-left ideas to keep pace with these new 
demands. That is where the policy debate among progressives must now go.
· Tony Blair will host today's discussion on the future of the centre-left. 
The seminar marks the launch of preparations for the progressive governance 
conference in London in July .
www.progressive-governance.net