The U.K.’s flexible labor and welfare system provides, according to Tony Blair, a model for a modernized European social model. This paper explores this claim and demonstrates the importance for recent favorable growth and employment trends of macroeconomic conditions, public expenditure, and Britain’s position as a leader in the internationalization of the service economy. Not only is the model not readily transferable to Europe but it comes with both high social costs and high risks. The United Kingdom has rediscovered the public space but combined this with a commitment to the market state that poses long-term risks to Europe’s social models.
