Tony Blair's big idea

摘要

It Is, says Tony Blair, the "defining difference" between his government and its Tory predecessors. Mr Blair argues that the Conservatives adopted a laisser-faire attitude to the growth of a British underclass; his government will tackle the problem head on. On December 8th, a special "Social Exclusion Unit", based at 10 Downing Street, will be launched to deal with the problem. Social exclusion means different things to different people. The term was invented in France, originally referring to people who dropped through the social-security net. From France, it was picked up by the European Commission, which is now responsible for fretting on a European-wide basis about the "socially excluded".