The size of the part of society that actually produces value should increase and the size of the finanical sector should decrease.

Then the economy isn’t the only topic that is of interest to voters. In Sweden the Pirate Party got 7% on a platform based on individual liberties.
Maybe the left could get a fair share of those votes if it would also protect civil liberties instead of destroying them out of fear of terrorists.

Perhaps rather that just reacting in a petulant manner where Third Way seems to be like a red rag to a bull you might actually like to put forward ways by which the left could be in power in as many European countries now as it was in the late 1990s.

If Social Europe is still willing to give credence to the «Third Way» and its apologists, who have done nothing but push Europe to the the Right, both politically, socially and economically in the past 15 years, and who have presided over the biggest increase in income inequality in Europe in modern times, then I cannot really trust them on anything «Social», can I?

Regards from the true Left.

However, I feel that we lack a coherent ideaology throughout EU to make an impact on the European people. Yes, we need a forward looking policies but based on what? Should we still care of the masses that are overburdened with taxes that will never filter through the same poeple again. Should we start looking at the workers as the consumers of our society who are being swindled by the so called ‘businesses’. Every problem has two faces interlinked to each other. Are the workers the same people that consume the products that were produced by other workers? Let us change our perspective from looking at the probelms of the workers to the problems of the consumers for they are the same people at the end of the economic loop.

And therefore the consumers have rights. Rights that are being trampled upon by those businesses that lobby in the EU parliament. These rights consist of the geniune food we eat, education for all, environment that enriches us, culture for all.

So I think before we start thinking of new leadership, let us think of new ideas that will benefit the people of Europe.

On the issue of redundant bankers – look at the percentages. It’s not as if London and other banking centres are over-flowing with redundant bankers. Those in the economy with university degrees and business skills will for sure find further employment. There will always be a decent financial sector – perhaps not as large as before, but the sector will not die. The same cannot be said for some areas of industry and retail.

Also note on what I stated on the Third Way – I don’t agree with it! I cited that as reference to a time when the left was more optimistic and self confident than it is at the moment.

Flexicurity has all sorts of issues associated with it starting from downward social mobility to loss of productivity as a result of loss of expertise. This is not a system that would make proper macroeconomic steering redundant. What would you suggest all the bankers should become now?

Industry is not necessarily outdated and dirty. Much of it is also very knowledge intensive and should be adjusted to new circumstances rather than abandoned. The key is to make necessary adjustments at a pace people can cope with. This is not to say that one should slow down adjustment processes unnecessarily but prematurely abandoning large parts of the economy makes no sense either. Even the UK is talking up the role of industry again. But I completely agree that the left needs to present a clearer picture of what it wants the EU to do and what not.
I am afraid the Third Way was not a silver bullet but – in the way it was enacted – one source of the problems social democracy is currently facing. Blair and Schroeder had quite different ‘Third Ways’ associated with them and Jospin wasn’t really fond of it. I have 350 pages worth of thesis on this subject which I hopefully manage to turn into a book over the summer.