How should Tony Blair's view of Britain be placed? He already emphasised
national acheivment (not necessarily economic competition). In the speech
to the 1997 conference the emphasis is even more on nation as exemplar -
a model for the 21st century. He also resurrected a classic claim of
nationalism, the claim to have made inventions (Kruschev once claimed
jazz was of Russian origin).
It is very strange for me to see this, because I recognise it directly as
Mazzinian nationalism. Yet, to be honest, I suspect Blair has never read
Mazzini. One possible source is Ghandi, who was strongly influenced by
him. But in any case Mazzini formalised ideas already held widely (they
still are).
But how would people like this lists readers react to this? As
far-fetched? Probably...but I think the standard theory of Blair, which I
would guess places him in the European social democratic tradition, is
defective. (Especially, as geographers usually like to point out, the
spatial component).
pt
Blair ideolgy and ethics.
http://web.inter.NL.net/users/Paul.Treanor/blair.html
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