Blair: ja till globalisering, förkovran, valfrihet

Tony Blair har talat vid labourkongressen i dag. Talet är långt och tar upp många teman, men det finns en energinivå som är rätt imponerande (även om man förstås har sina invändningar). Bejaka globaliseringen, bejaka människors vilja till förkovran, bejaka mångfald i välfärdstjänsterna.

Några citat:

”The temptation is to use Gorvernment to try to protect ouselves against the onslaught of globalisation by shutting it out; to think we protect a workforce by regulation; a company by Government subsidy; an industry by tariffs.
It doesn’t work today.
Because the dam holding back the global economy burst years ago.
The competition can’t be shut out, it can only be beaten.”

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”Twenty years ago we gifted the ground of aspiration to the Tories. Today we’ve got it back and we’ll never yield it up to them again.”

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”The truth is command public services today are no more acceptable than a command economy.
The 21st century’s expectation in public services are a world away from those of 1945.
People demand quality, choice, high standards. Why? Because in every other walk of life they demand them.
And they are paying the taxes, so they feel they are entitled to them.
If we misunderstand this, we will make a mistake of the proportions of council house sales in the 1980’s.”