The Third Way
– an Answer to Blair 
Patrick Harrington. Third Way Publications, London 2000. ISBN: 095350770X £3.00
The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, describes his rehashed version of social democracy as the ‘Third Way’. The author of this pamphlet, Patrick Harrington, is a member of a small British political party – formed in 1990 – that also calls itself ‘Third Way’. Harrington asks if Blair’s version of the Third Way leads to a wider distribution of wealth and property among citizens. He also asks if the Blair version encourages citizenship that is more active and the devolution of political decisions to the lowest possible levels. If not, Blair’s claim and that of his guru Anthony Giddens to espouse a genuine third way is bogus.
Harrington examines the claims of Blair and Giddens and finds that they have nothing new to offer. Blair’s ‘third way’ will not empower the ordinary citizen but will create a ‘politically correct’ super-nanny state where Tony knows what’s good for everyone. In a small pamphlet, Harrington manages to expose the contradictions at the heart of Tony Blair’s pseudo-third way in which the Left become the servants of globalised capitalism.