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Blair's legacy is social democracy

Friday, 11th May 2007

The National Review has a rather good series of short posts on Blair's legacy. This is what I had to say:

Blair is misunderstood even in his own county, let alone in the U.S. He has been a traditional tax and spend social democrat — no more, no less — but with the political genius to make that ideology popular with the mass middle classes who decide elections.
Yes, he has been pragmatic in his application of tax and spend, understanding that contracting out the provision of services to the private sector can work, and that it is self-defeating for the left to be wedded to models of provision emanating in an era of state ownership and rationing.
But the vast tax increases under Labor have not been an unfortunate mistake forced on Blair by his chancellor, Gordon Brown, but the very basis of Labor’s purpose in office — taxing income to spend it ‘better’ than people can spend it themselves.
His political skills have rendered it impossible for opponents to oppose. The Left’s old delivery mechanisms look — and are — archaic. But even the Right’s prescription of a limited state and low taxes has been shattered, since it has been portrayed as mean spirited and dated.
So Blair’s legacy has been to change the dynamics of British politics, leaving social democracy as the centre ground around which elections are fought and from which political debates emerge.

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Chris Goodman

May 11th, 2007 6:06pm

Complete nonsense like so much that is written about Tony Blair. Who exactly thought that Tony Blair was going to reduce taxes? The New Labour mantra was always "investing in public services". No he has not changed the ground on which British elections are fought. It was just more of the same. The smart thinking - as I understand it - when he was elected was that his role was to prove that high SWtate spending is not the best way of providing services i.e. it is exactly the opposite of your claim. New Labour is - and always was - about making sure that the same people are in power. The Leftist establishment in the UK has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. The reformers want to shift power away from the established providers to the consumer. If you think that New Labour was ever interested in making that reform it is you who are deluded.