"Third Way, Wrong Way"
By The Rt. Hon. William Hague MP
Friday 17th September 1999
[Text of a speech by the Rt. Hon., William Hague M.P., Leader of the
Conservative Party, to the International Democrat Union Leader's Conference in
Berlin.]
"It is a great privilege and an honour to follow Carl Bildt as Chairman
of the IDU, and to assume that Chairmanship in the presence of another
former Chairman of the IDU, Dr Alois Mock. We owe Carl a huge debt of
thanks for everything he has done for our organisation, and everything
he continues to do for the cause of peace and democracy in the Balkans.
"We also should thank outgoing Secretary Graham Wynn and his staff for
all the work they have done to support our activities.
"In 1987, when the IDU was last in Berlin, we met in a divided city in a
very different world. Alois was in the chair and Carl wrote the paper on
East-West Relations. At one point in that meeting, Margaret Thatcher was
told that the East German secret police might be listening to every word
that was said. Margaret Thatcher said she hoped they were listening -
because we, the IDU, are the voice of freedom.
"And wherever that voice of freedom is heard there is hope. What greater
symbol of that can there be than this great city of hope - Berlin?
"Destroyed by war half a century ago, then blockaded and isolated from
the free world, divided in half by a cruel and ugly Wall, it was here in
Berlin ten years ago almost to the month that the voice of freedom cried
out; ten years ago that the people of Berlin literally tore down the
Wall with their bare hands. Now, ten years later, Berlin is the capital
of a united Germany at the centre of Europe.
"We should be proud that the parties of the IDU stood resolute in
defence of freedom in the dark days of the Cold War, when some political
parties of the left sought accommodation with Soviet tyranny.
"We should be proud of how the IDU reached out to those who shared our
beliefs in the new democracies that have emerged in Europe and Asia,
Africa and South America.
"We should be proud of our past, but we should never forget that
represented around this table are people and parties who still today
struggle against communist aggression and tyranny - on the Korean
Peninsular, in Cuba, in Taiwan and elsewhere. We offer our sister
parties support and solidarity in their fight. Now, in the evening of
our battle against communism, is not the time to lay down our arms; now
is the time to complete the victory.
"But we must also accept that the centre-right across the world faces a
new challenge. For while the IDU has won the battle of ideas and exposed
the bankruptcy of socialism, too many of us have lost political battles
in our own backyards.
"We face resurgent parties of the left that have disowned their roots,
repackaged themselves and chosen new political leaders. They have made a
systematic attempt to occupy the centre ground of politics by imitating
our language, adopting our issues and pretending to be parties of the
right.
"It is a fraud. For while many on the left now speak the language of
freedom, their actual policies curtail individual choice; while they
speak the language of enterprise, their policies mean higher taxes and
more state spending; while they speak the language of free markets,
their policies lead to more state intervention and regulation; while
they speak the language of responsibility, their policies undermine
family and community. In short, they do one thing and say another.
"Some of these left-wing politicians call their shallow and meaningless
political programmes the Third Way - we must show that it is the Wrong
Way.
"The parties of the IDU need to develop a new agenda, the Right Way,
that shows that in the age of global markets and the internet there are
enormous opportunities for personal prosperity and freedom which were
unimaginable half a century ago - but equally that those opportunities
will only be available to countries with low taxes, flexible regulation
and small government.
"Our agenda must also be about more than economics. We believe that
there are ties of family, community and nation that underpin a free
society. The left wants to undermine those ties; we must work to
strengthen them.
"The way I look at it is simple: we must be on the side of the family
that works hard, saves hard, tries to be independent of the state, wants
a better future for their children, and believes in their country.
"What can the parties of the IDU do to help those hard working families?
"In our own countries, we can offer them greater freedom to spend the
money they earn, lower taxes and less state interference, a better
education and more personal responsibility.
"On the international stage, we can work together to offer them peace
and prosperity.
"Peace comes from strong defence and on the collective security of
democratic countries. NATO is the outstanding example of the peace which
the collective security among free countries can bring.
"Prosperity comes from free markets, free peoples and free trade. We
have made huge advances over the last fifty years in freeing up trade
around the world, and that has brought immense benefits to people in all
countries.
"For example, it has been estimated that the last GATT round will, over
time, increase world trade by something between 6 to 20 per cent, and
boost world incomes by $200 billion to $500 billion per year.
"But a considerable amount of work remains to be done:
- tariffs on industrial goods have fallen dramatically, but remain high
in other areas like food and textiles;
- as tariffs have fallen, more subtle ways of distorting and restricting
trade have emerged, such as technical barriers, domestic regulation and
state subsidy;
- new patterns of international trade have given rise to new issues. It
is becoming more and more important to break down the barriers to the
international trade in services, and to ensure that the whole world
benefits from emerging electronic commerce.
"Instead of tackling these remaining restrictions to free trade, I fear
that many countries are continuing to engage in petty disputes because
they see trade as a zero-sum game. Governments attempt to pry open
overseas markets for their exporters while they fight hard to protect
their domestic industries from foreign competition. I have to say that
European Union is in danger of becoming one of the worst proponents of
this new mercantilism.
"We need a fresh start. Free trade benefits everyone. As Britain
discovered in the nineteenth century, a country as a whole gains by
opening up its markets, even if it does so unilaterally.
"I make no apologies for being a passionate believer in global free
trade. Which is why I would urge the politicians who will gather in
Seattle in November to seize the opportunity for a new and comprehensive
round of world trade talks.
"I believe, as community of free nations, we should not set limits to
our ambitions.
"My Party is committed to building an alliance between the European
Union and NAFTA. Europe and America already do $400 billion worth of
trade with each other a year. But industrial tariffs remain, and
significant non-tariff barriers to trade and investment remain -
financial services is an obvious example. We need to sweep these
barriers away and build a transatlantic free trade area.
"This is just the first step. We should work to bring the world's
regional trade blocs, such as the EU, ASEAN, NAFTA and APEC, together. I
believe we should set ourselves the target of global free trade by the
year 2020.
"Global free trade - now that would be a monument worthy a new
Millennium! It would bring vast benefits to all the world's population,
rich and poor. It would put politicians on the side of the consumer. In
Britain, as in many countries, it would mean cheaper cars, cheaper
computers and televisions, and cheaper food. It would allow us to seize
all the opportunities of the information and internet revolution. It
would enshrine our values of freedom and enterprise and small
government.
"There is nothing impossible about this dream of global free trade,
provided we have the political leadership to fight for it. That
political leadership cannot come from the left, with their ideological
obsession with state intervention and control. It must come from the
right - from the parties represented here today at the IDU.
"That is why I am delighted that the statement we have issued here in
Berlin states our belief that 'the economy is not a zero sum game in
which every winner must be matched by a loser. All can win through
economic growth. This is the common ground. We want to see the dynamic
creation of new wealth by free people, free markets, free trade and
democratic societies. We offer a vision of shared prosperity and the
common good, not a fight over limited resources'.
"Together let us commit ourselves to working together to that vision.
"It is often said that the parties of the left have been much better at
working together around the world than the parties of the centre-right
have been. Perhaps that is not surprising. For left wing thinking
springs from rigid ideology and abstract theory that is universal around
the world, irrespective of time or place or reality. Our thinking is
different. It comes from the instincts of our peoples; it is about time
and place and reality. So it changes from one country to another, and
from one continent to another. But we share a deep commitment to a
belief in the freedom and enterprise of the individual, wherever they
live. The IDU is the embodiment of that commitment.
"The beliefs and ideas of the IDU have defeated socialism and have
brought peace and prosperity to many people at the end of the twentieth
century.
"As your new Chairman, I must make sure that we do not rest on our
laurels. There are new goals and new ambitions for us to set ourselves.
For our task now is to make the centre-right around the world, and the
ideas of the IDU, as relevant to the next century as they have been to
this one."