The Third Way

This is the transcript of a lecture given by Niall Dickson, BBC Social Affairs Editor, to the Institute of Directors of Social Affairs, in 1999.

It outlines the main threads of the Third Way as CORA; Community, Opportunity, Responsibility and Accountability. It asks whether the ideology is possible, how it is working in practice and draws particular attention to the lack of ideologiacl commitment to the public sector.

On reflection I think that this relates to the idea of 'emptiness' in that 'it doesn't matter who does the job' as long as its done well. It is pragmatism, but scribbles over a culture of public service that underpinned the work done. Now culture is ignored, and yet if the only cultural leadership coming from the government is target culture, it is ultimately devoid of meaning that would provide professional identity and some sense of intrinsic motivation.