Response to Atkins and Leggett

Abstract

I stopped using the term ‘Third Way’ several years ago, frustrated by my inability to get people to understand what I meant by it. For me it was all about bringing social democracy up to date, not an attempt to find a middle ground between left and right, a sort of fuzzy compromise. I wanted to help develop a political philosophy and practice that would move beyond statist socialism and market fundamentalism, not tread the middle of the road between them. Such an approach also had to come to terms with the rise of issues and problems that do not fit classical right-left distinctions, such as environmental problems.