Thinkers and political figures
Portrait: Via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) · No known restrictions
Tony Blair
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Era
- b. 1953
- Tradition
- Third Way social liberalism
Prime Minister from 1997, who accepted the market settlement of the 1980s while sharply raising public spending, devolved power to Scotland and Wales, and took Britain into the Iraq war.
01
Documented positions
Documented positions come from the sources listed. Similarity is this project’s inference from those positions, and is a much weaker claim.
- Rewrote Labour’s Clause IV in 1995, dropping the commitment to public ownership
- Introduced the national minimum wage and large real increases in NHS and school spending
- Devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the Good Friday Agreement (1998)
- Human Rights Act (1998) and the Freedom of Information Act (2000)
- Took Britain into the invasion of Iraq in 2003; the Chilcot Inquiry later found the case was presented with unwarranted certainty
02
Where it sits on each dimension
Wealth and inequality
48
RedistributionMarket outcomes
Evidence: Well documented
The state in the economy
54
Active stateLimited state
Evidence: Well documented
Personal liberty
48
Collective orderIndividual freedom
Evidence: Documented
Tradition and change
74
ContinuityReform
Evidence: Well documented
Nation and the world
42
InternationalistNationalist
Evidence: Well documented
Power and its limits
66
Concentrated authorityChecks and pluralism
Evidence: Documented
Environment and growth
58
Production firstProtection first
Evidence: Documented
Crime and punishment
40
PunishmentRehabilitation
Evidence: Documented
Dimensions left unscored, for want of evidence: Religion and the state
Sources
- The Report of the Iraq Inquiry (Chilcot Report) · HM Government · 2016
- New Labour: Because Britain Deserves Better · The Labour Party · 1997
Last verified: