Above all Britain's self-denying exclusion from the single currency guarantees our exclusion from the engine-room of EU decision-making
Above all, Britain's self-denying exclusion from the single currency guarantees our exclusion from the engine-room of EU decision-making. Put those dreams of the Third Way sweeping Europe on hold, Mr Prime Minister The European Way owes more to the past.. That means that the Paris-Bonn axis remains as strong as ever, with the new government in Italy a like-minded partner, as it replaces the more Blair-like administration of Romano Prodi. And the influence of Greens in both the German and the Italian governments adds to their anti-Nato, often anti-British sentiment. What developments in all these countries emphasise is the significance to the British left of the experience of Thatcherism. Privatisation is now accepted everywhere: Mr Jospin's government has sold off more state assets than all previous French governments put together, while the British Labour Government has more or less run out of things to sell. More than Mr Schroder, Mr Lafontaine is close to Lionel Jospin, the French Prime Minister.
But other implications of Mr Lafontaine's emergence as the strong man of the new government are more disturbing. The increased taxes on business are likely to make the problem of unemployment worse, while the shying away from radicalism - even if it was, like Mr Blair's, a radicalism of rhetoric rather than policy - bodes ill for the reform of the European Union, which is the most important collective political venture on the Continent after the launch of the euro. This has implications for the British attempt to gatecrash the heart of Europe. It may be that lower interest rates, at least, are just what Germany, Europe and the world economy needs. And the plans for "green taxes" on pollution point up one of the biggest missed opportunities of Mr Blair's new politics. There is little doubt that his policies and style are markedly un-Blairite: his language is all about the fight against unemployment - one of the reasons for the SPD's victory - and his instincts will be to respond to economic slowdown with Keynesian reflation and to shore up rather than dismantle the welfare state.
And he jumped ship before it had even started down the slipway, leaving Oskar Lafontaine if not alone on the bridge, with at least one hand on the wheel. Mr Lafontaine, the incoming finance minister, is thus in a central position both in determining the new government's economic policy and in controlling patronage as the Social Democratic Party as chairman. IT TURNS out that Gerhard Schroder, who will be installed as German chancellor next week, is more of a New Jospin than a New Blair. The most telling portent of the true nature of the social-democratic consensus that is settling over western Europe was the resignation this week of Jost Stollmann, the millionaire entrepreneur and friend of Mr Schroder, just hours before he was to be confirmed as a powerful economics minister. Mr Stollmann, who is not a member of any political party, was a symbol of the Blairite "new centre" approach - technocratic, business-friendly, unideological.
I'm not sure that she understood all the concepts but she was never bored and asked for more.As an adult she has a keen appreciation of the beauty of stars and has a certain familiarity with the way they actually work - as I am sure that Dawkins's daughter will have about flowers and genetics.The truth is more beautiful than any fairy story and children are well able to handle it.PETER CERESOLELondon SW14. Should we then be lying to our children?When my daughter asked me "Daddy, tell me about stars" I tried the truth; large masses of gas falling inwards so that they became compressed and hot, starting nuclear reactions that burst outwards, held in balance by the force of gravity inwards All accompanied by star-like arm waving and noises. Trusts should be created to be monitored by the Charity Commissioners. The Government should introduce a listing system (as with stately homes), thus ensuring protection.Mrs ELIZABETH SMITHBurnham, Buckinghamshire. Letter: Heads in the stars Sir: Ann Hopkins complains about Richard Dawkins telling the truth to his daughter (letter, 21 October). Trusteeships came into being or in some cases the site was taken over by the local council.The sites held by trustees are at great risk from marauding property developers and local authorities only too eager to fill district plans with sites for housing development.Local people are powerless to protect that which they paid for through the death of the young and then paid for again, often from very small incomes.All war memorials could be identified by local councils.
