“A market economy, not a market society”

I was unimpressed when Ed Miliband told a sympathetic interviewer, Charles Moore, recently: “We want a market economy, not a market society.”

A slogan, not a policy, I said.

Hah, said Tom Powdrill. Tony Blair said it. Exactly, I said. It is not even original.

I had forgotten how unoriginal it was. A friend with astonishing recall of politics told me that he thought it had been coined by Lionel Jospin.

He was right: ”We say yes to a market economy, but no to a market society.” Lionel Jospin, French prime minister, in a speech by the French prime minister at the inauguration of the Foreign Policy Centre, London, July 1998.

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• Pacificweather

  Decency and good sense reside not only in both wings of the party but in all parties. The only problem is that there are so few examples. British history is littered with “not our finest hour” moments and anyone could be forgiven for believing that the one thing politicians glorying in is shaming us as a nation.

  Mr. Rentoul never tells us all the things Mr Blair did well. He only tries vainly to tell us why his fallen hero has not really fallen. In doing so, he only serves to damage his reputation further. If such a thing was possible.

• Pacificweather

  Oh come on. John angry – no. John is heartbroken, distraught, possibly even unhinged. That is what grief does to you. He has lost the love of his life. Show some sympathy.

• stonedwolf

  Heh, the five stages of grief. Denial, Anger, Bargaining,
  Depression, Acceptance – and he can cycle through the first four stages endlessly!!

  Anyway… me… show sympathy… for the devil… ??

• JohnJustice

  It is clear that decency does not reside in most of the contributors to this comment thread, Some of the personal comments have been quite disgraceful and only serve to damage the reputation of those making them.