Thursday, May 17, 2007

After Blair

Christopher Chantrill wrote on American Thinker On the day after British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced his retirement, they retired the "new" in "New Labour." The British Labour Party removed the logo "New Labour, New Britain" from its web site and substituted just plain "Labour."

So the Third Way era is over. It was, after all, nothing more than a makeover to restyle the progressive parties of Britain and the US and make them electorally viable. It didn't change the nature of the parties. Even Clinton and Blair, with all their talent, failed to talk the progressives out of their progressive faith. The Democrats have gone back to tax increases and more spending, and the Labour Party doesn't think it needs to be "new" any more.
There is apparently not a market for a centrist party. Both countries will continue to see-saw between the extreme left and the extreme right.
The promise of Third Way politics to conservatives was that maybe the left would work with us in reforming the welfare state. Now we know that they won't.

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