ABSTRACT
In this chapter I shall look at the language of New Labour ‘in motion’ so to speak – at the dynamics of New Labour’s political discourse. I consider first the development of the political discourse of New Labour in its relationship to other political discourses both in Britain and internationally, including the political discourse of Thatcherism in Britain, the discourse of Clinton and the New Democrats in the USA, and political (including social democratic) discourse within the European Union. Although there are differences across this range of political discourses, there also appears to be a dynamic in the development of political discourses which they are all involved in and which transcends both national boundaries and traditional political divisions between left and right. What seems to be emerging is a new international political discourse of the centre-left – an international discourse of the ‘Third Way’. It is worth noting in this connection that New Labour has been instrumental in setting up a series of international ‘seminars’ on the ‘Third Way’, attended not only by Blair and Clinton but also by leaders from other countries, including Brazil, Sweden, Italy, and more recently Germany. However, in so far as such a new political discourse is emerging, it seems to me to be a centre-left strain within neo-liberalism rather than an alternative or even serious corrective to it.
