New Britain: My Vision Of A Young Country

by Tony Blair

Overview

New Britain presents Tony Blair on all the major debates of British public life: 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813342351
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	04/09/2004
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1180L (what's this?)

About the Author

Born in 1953 in Edinburgh, Prime Minister Tony Blair was elected as the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield in 1983. He was elected leader of the Labour Party in 1994 and lead a rejuvenated Labour Party against John Major and the Conservatives in 1997's General Election.

Editorial Reviews

The byword of this assemblage of speeches plus a couple of articles by British Labour party leader Blair is "stakeholder economy"-a partnership between government and the masses of people, with emphasis on job creation, housing, controlling inflation and investment in technology and infrastructure. Blasting the Tories as a selfish, complacent party of the rich, content with managing Britain's decline instead of seeking national renewal, Blair calls for an overhaul of the system of "divided education" that caters to a privileged elite. He defends gay rights, advocates reform of the National Health Service to replace market forces with cooperation and calls for a get-tough stance on criminals, combined with an attack on what he considers the sources of crime: unemployment, social decay and family breakdown. He urges reform of the welfare state through job training programs and linking of benefits to work. The rhetoric and inevitable overlap in these speeches may elicit a ho-hum from American readers having only a passing familiarity with British politics. But those willing to dig deeper will find here a window into Britain's class-ridden society and a detailed blueprint for Britain in the next century. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly