Perhaps not a great modernizer, but Tony Blair was a good one, one who took advantage of a wide consensus in 1997 that Britain needed -- and could now afford -- to readjust the Thatcher reforms in a social democratic direction.
After 10 years, New Labour has established something that deserves the title of a "model" -- the Anglo-Social model -- premised on the third way idea that you can have both relatively free markets, including labor markets, and a high degree of social protection. New Labour has introduced a high minimum wage, a highly redistributive system of tax credits (modeled on the American EITC), a big increase in public investment in the country’s free education and health care systems, and a strong commitment to further reducing poverty (which has already fallen quite sharply for children and pensioners).
Blair's greatest legacy in domestic policy is that the Conservative opposition, until a year or two ago still floundering with a largely Thatcherite free market agenda, has now accepted all of the above reforms. The opposition promises, in other words, to take over the Anglo-Social model and just run it better.
On Blair's watch we have also seen important constitutional changes which have devolved power, entrenched individual rights and reformed the antiquarian House of Lords. Culturally, Britain feels like a more modern and confident country -- symbolized by the surging growth of cosmopolitan London and the mass immigration that is driving it.
With his easy, classless manner and his appealing combination of pragmatism and idealism, Blair embodied this shift in gear. In years to come this is what we will remember rather than the temporary unpopularity he suffered as a result of the Iraq war.
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