Word: britain
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...Decline of the European Democratic Left." The SPD has been trailing Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) by up to 15 points for months. The French Socialists were trounced by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 and have never recovered. The Italian left was bested by Silvio Berlusconi last year. And in Britain, the Labour party is staring at near certain defeat at the hands of Tory leader David Cameron in elections to be held by next year. (See pictures of world leaders on vacation...
...This is a puzzle; after all, we are talking about a left that not so long ago produced Prime Ministers such as Romano Prodi in Italy, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in Britain, Gerhard Schröder in Germany, and Presidents, like François Mitterrand, who ruled France for 14 years. The puzzle is sharpened by the current crop of center-right leaders, who are either not very exciting (Merkel) or much too exciting (Sarkozy and Berlusconi, with their flashy or buffo theatrics...
...program was the welfare state and income redistribution. But those days in Europe are gone. The milieu of such parties is evaporating, and that is why even in this economic crisis, social democratic parties are not scoring with more spending, taxes and goodies. Where is the working class in Britain, the first industrialized nation, where manufacturing contributes only 16% to GDP? Or even in Germany...
...Under Secretary charged with finding innovative ways to finance projects. He runs an agency called UNITAID that is attached to the World Health Organization and already channels funds to fight disease in poor countries. UNITAID was founded in 2006. Its $400 million annual budget is funded by Britain, France, Norway, Brazil and Chile. Douste-Blazy is now trying to turbo-charge those efforts by bringing in private donations. He's set up a foundation linked to UNITAID that will collect the voluntary airline-ticket levy and distribute it to key players in the field of medical assistance in Africa...
...shaking down villagers for bribes. In 2007, A British-led program to rehabilitate Taliban fighters and give them job training was abruptly shut down by Karzai himself, who accused the British of colluding with the Taliban. The situation is complicated by a century and a half of suspicions about Britain's colonial legacy in Afghanistan...