Labour List are hosting an event tomorrow which piqued my interest. It appears to be sponsored by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) (‘Radically Pragmatic’ according to their website) which is based in ‘Washington, Brussels, United Kingdom.’ It also appears to be known as the Third Way Foundation although I couldn’t find more info about that. Searching for this foundation on Google brings up Third Way.org but their personnel don’t appear to match. The president of PPI is one Will Marshall. His entry in Wikipedia includes this:
‘Will Marshall is one of the founders of the New Democrat movement. Since its founding in 1989, he has been president of the Progressive Policy Institute, a think tank formerly affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). He served on the board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an organization chaired by Joe Lieberman (I) and John McCain (R) designed to build support for the invasion of Iraq. Marshall also signed, at the outset of the war, a letter issued by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) expressing support for the invasion. Marshall signed a similar letter sent to President Bush put out by the Social Democrats USA on Feb. 25, 2003, just before the invasion. The SDUSA letter urged Bush to commit to "maintaining substantial U.S. military forces in Iraq for as long as may be required to ensure a stable, representative regime is in place and functioning."‘ Certainly it must have been pretty radically pragmatic to co-sign a letter alongside PNAC neo-con luminaries. Anyway, Mr Marshall will be one of the speakers at the Labour List event, which is called ’What can Labour learn from Biden’s economic programme?’ One might reasonably assume ’a lot.’ Another speaker is Claire Ainsley, listed as Director of the Centre-Left Renewal Project at PPI. This project is mentioned on the PPI website as follows: ‘The Project on Center-Left Renewal is headed by Claire Ainsley, formerly a top policy advisor to British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer. In April, Ainsley led a PPI delegation to Australia to glean useful lessons from the electoral and governing successes of that country’s Labor party. The project teamed up with Progressive Britain [formerly known as Progress] for a London conference in May featuring Starmer and other key Labour leaders. Ainsley and PPI also were highly visible at Labour’s Liverpool conference in October, releasing a polling and strategy document, Roadmap to Hope, on how Labour could begin to win back working-class voters who defected to the Conservatives in the 2019 election.’ So that’s who all those people were at last year’s conference! Labour List’s event will also be addressed by Kirsty McNeill, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Midlothian, who ‘attended Progressive Britain/PPI U.S. trip.’ Progressive Britain’s luminaries include Liz Kendall, Roger Liddle, Pat McFadden and Bridget Phillipson. Topping things off will be James Murray MP, Shadow Secretary to the Treasury. Kirsty is no newcomer to the corridors of power, as her website reveals: ‘I started working for Gordon [Brown] when I was 27 because he’d noticed the work I’d done on the Board of Make Poverty History where I led on organising the 250,000 strong march in Edinburgh. I’ve worked across Europe and am a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a group that brings together foreign ministers, former prime ministers, European Commissioners and parliamentarians with leaders from NATO, business and the media.’ So, to witness a snapshot of the Atlanticist political influence process, I have signed on for tomorrow’s session and will report back in part two. Meanwhile, long live the Third Way! It’s there somewhere, hiding under some tumbleweed . . .
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