The left wants the New Labourites to admit they were wrong about Iraq, welfare reform, flexible labour markets.
What was clear from the exchange was that every democratic society must seek a balance between the public and the private, between social welfare and flexible markets, between public and private liberty.
A flexible labour market and stingy welfare state ensure that there is no resentful immigrant underclass with time on its hands, as in France.
That requires painful changes to make labour markets more flexible, to trim overly generous welfare states and to inject new competition into product markets, especially for services, which account for two-thirds of EU-wide GDP.
To date, most national animal welfare acts are flexible enough to implement the amendments presented in this paper as a kind of good laboratory practice or guidelines clarification while enforcing respective national laws.
Mr. Wientzen said they employ 4.1 million workers, including many students, single parents and former welfare recipients who need flexible hours.
There have been recent signs of a shift to more liberal economics, with calls for cuts in public spending, taxes and social welfare, and a more flexible labour market.
Although defections have cost it an assured parliamentary majority, it has brought in a 19% flat tax for profits and incomes, a flexible labour code and American-style welfare reforms.
He wants "welfare arrangements that encourage flexible employment, together with a pension system that is fairly balanced and takes advantage of the fact that life expectancy has increased to get people to work longer".
Mr. Simon, who died in 1998, optimistically countered that human welfare would flourish thanks to flexible markets and our collective ingenuity.
