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New Britain: My Vision Of A Young Country
New Britain presents Tony Blair on all the major debates of British public from nationalized health care to crime prevention, from the welfare state to monetary policy, from religion to family values, from individualism to isolationism, from taxation to trade unions, from NATO to Northern Ireland, from community rebirth to economic growth. After seventeen years of Conservative Party rule under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, a change in Great Britain's leadership appears imminent. In Blair's Stakeholder Nation, government works in partnership with private and voluntary sectors to harness the power of the market to serve the public interest. In New Britain, we read in Blair's own articulate words how to improve the standard of living of all Britain's families; how to base a new social order on merit, commitment, and inclusion; how to decentralize British institutions of political power; and how to expand Britain's leadership in foreign affairs.
- GenresPolitics
352 pages, Paperback
Published April 9, 2004
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87 people want to read
About the author
Tony Blair
72 books58 followersBritish lawyer and politician Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, known as Tony, led Labour party and served as prime minister from 1997 to 2007; economic growth and a peace agreement between factions in Northern Ireland marked his administration, and United States in 2003 invaded Iraq with its participation.
He began as member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 in the United Kingdom.
Following the sudden death of John Smith, people elected Tony Blair as successor in July 1994. People for decades held many policies, which Blair abandoned.
He from 2 May 1997 took the United Kingdom. He won a landslide victory in the general election, which of 1997 ended 18 years of Conservative rule with the heaviest defeat in 165 years.
Only Blair, the longest-serving person, led three consecutive general election victories.
Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer during his decade in office, succeeded Blair on 24 June 2007. On 27 June 2007, the day, when he stood and stepped away is member of Parliament, people appointed him official envoy of the quartet on the Middle East on behalf of the United Nations, the European Union, Russia.
He began as member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 in the United Kingdom.
Following the sudden death of John Smith, people elected Tony Blair as successor in July 1994. People for decades held many policies, which Blair abandoned.
He from 2 May 1997 took the United Kingdom. He won a landslide victory in the general election, which of 1997 ended 18 years of Conservative rule with the heaviest defeat in 165 years.
Only Blair, the longest-serving person, led three consecutive general election victories.
Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer during his decade in office, succeeded Blair on 24 June 2007. On 27 June 2007, the day, when he stood and stepped away is member of Parliament, people appointed him official envoy of the quartet on the Middle East on behalf of the United Nations, the European Union, Russia.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 21, 2021
Tony Blair's New Britain is a selection of articles and extracts from speeches that lay out Blair's political vision.
Blair's case is that the heavy-handed collectivism of the old Left and the individualism of the new Right are incapable of meeting the desires of people who want both the security of community life and an ethos of personal responsibility. Blair's vision comes off as unabashedly populist, writing paeans to the importance of government for the people. The phrase 'for the many, not the few' crops up at least once per chapter. Everything wrong in Britain is a result of the betrayal of the people by an incompetent elite who underfund public services. Blair's solution is to turn the Labour Party into a 'people's party' that governs not for narrow, sectional needs but in the national interest. It's a compelling case but Blair's version of this well-trodden argument nails the rhetoric but lacks any sort of specific prescriptions of what ought to be done that extends beyond mere managerialism.
What is also surprising is that Blair uses the word 'socialism' to describe his beliefs. For him, 'socialism' is a system of values that the old Left mistook for the means of achieving the ends of social justice. For the old Left socialism became confused with a Quixotic pursuit of nationalisation and central planning that obfuscated the moral basis of socialism. His 'socialism', he tells us, isn't the socialism of Marxist textbooks but a socialism that emerged out of meeting with real people - a self-styled socialism of the streets. Very hip!
The book offers a glimpse into the pressing political concerns of turn-of-the-millennium Britain. Technological revolution - in particular the internet which Blair quite quaintly calls the 'Superhighway' - and globalisation especially with the ascendance of the European Union and the emerging Tiger economies of East Asia have rendered the means of 20th-Century socialism obsolete. Instead, Blair proposes a partnership between public and the private sector to achieve socially desirable goals. For instance, he makes the case that internet providers ought to be allowed to compete in a dynamic market and, in return, should supply internet access for free to public services like libraries and schools.
New Britain is rich in rhetoric but scant on any sort of evidence. There isn't any particularly compelling proof that this marriage of private and public interests will actually result in desirable outcomes. Markets are enterprising and innovative because Blair says they are. Moreover, it would be hard to argue that this approach outlined in New Britain would, in any way, be new at all. States and private businesses have worked (colluded, perhaps?) together in nearly every society in existence.
A pleasant enough read that, on the surface, appears to offer some sort of vision for political change but is curiously lacking in substance.
Blair's case is that the heavy-handed collectivism of the old Left and the individualism of the new Right are incapable of meeting the desires of people who want both the security of community life and an ethos of personal responsibility. Blair's vision comes off as unabashedly populist, writing paeans to the importance of government for the people. The phrase 'for the many, not the few' crops up at least once per chapter. Everything wrong in Britain is a result of the betrayal of the people by an incompetent elite who underfund public services. Blair's solution is to turn the Labour Party into a 'people's party' that governs not for narrow, sectional needs but in the national interest. It's a compelling case but Blair's version of this well-trodden argument nails the rhetoric but lacks any sort of specific prescriptions of what ought to be done that extends beyond mere managerialism.
What is also surprising is that Blair uses the word 'socialism' to describe his beliefs. For him, 'socialism' is a system of values that the old Left mistook for the means of achieving the ends of social justice. For the old Left socialism became confused with a Quixotic pursuit of nationalisation and central planning that obfuscated the moral basis of socialism. His 'socialism', he tells us, isn't the socialism of Marxist textbooks but a socialism that emerged out of meeting with real people - a self-styled socialism of the streets. Very hip!
The book offers a glimpse into the pressing political concerns of turn-of-the-millennium Britain. Technological revolution - in particular the internet which Blair quite quaintly calls the 'Superhighway' - and globalisation especially with the ascendance of the European Union and the emerging Tiger economies of East Asia have rendered the means of 20th-Century socialism obsolete. Instead, Blair proposes a partnership between public and the private sector to achieve socially desirable goals. For instance, he makes the case that internet providers ought to be allowed to compete in a dynamic market and, in return, should supply internet access for free to public services like libraries and schools.
New Britain is rich in rhetoric but scant on any sort of evidence. There isn't any particularly compelling proof that this marriage of private and public interests will actually result in desirable outcomes. Markets are enterprising and innovative because Blair says they are. Moreover, it would be hard to argue that this approach outlined in New Britain would, in any way, be new at all. States and private businesses have worked (colluded, perhaps?) together in nearly every society in existence.
A pleasant enough read that, on the surface, appears to offer some sort of vision for political change but is curiously lacking in substance.
March 15, 2022
A series of essays and speeches that led to the election of New Labour.
There are stil political fights today about education, poverty, healthcare and welfare that mirro the fights in the 90's. Will we never learn?
There are stil political fights today about education, poverty, healthcare and welfare that mirro the fights in the 90's. Will we never learn?
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews