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Tony
Blair's Government promises a new Britain. A constitutional revolution, welfare
to work and lifelong learning have become the lexicon of a political reformation.
The labels left and right have been superseded by the claims of the new and
the defeat of the old; modernisation versus traditionalism is the faultline
that determines British politics today.
The Moderniser's Dilemma, a follow-up to best-seller The Blair Agenda, explores
the options for radical politics in new Labour Britain, options which pose
difficult choices as assessments of Blair's Prime Ministership begin to take
shape. Yet the choices made will help determine whether the radicalism of
the early 21st century will reproduce the progressive principles and policies
of the past hundred years or will be founded on new values and visions.
The essays in The Moderniser's Dilemma cover a broad range of opinions, theories
and experiences, demonstrating the central concerns that advocates, opponents
and observers face when seeking to determine their position in relation to
the politics of Blairism. Party reform, the re-structuring of the British
state, the competing claims of the theories of modernisation and the potential
appeal of an alternative politics of the new are chronicled in detail, providing
a critical examination of both the modernisation we know, and of one yet to
be discovered.
In one chapter, The Diary of a New Labour MP, Stephen Twigg, MP for Enfield
Southgate, dramatically describes the days which led up to the downfall of
Michael Portillo.
The analyses include Together Again After All
These Years: Science, Politics and Theology in the New Modernity by Wendy
Wheeler, Reader in English Literature and Critical Theory, University of North
London.
Among other contributors are Andrew Gamble, Professor of Politics at Sheffield
University, and Times leader writer Michael Gove.
Ann Coddington is a former editor of New Times, author and broadcaster.
Mark Perryman is a contributor to the New Statesman,and convenor of
the highly regarded research group Signs Of The Times. He edited Altered
States (L&W 1994) and The Blair Agenda
(L&W 1996)