Yes, the European model remains superior to that of America and Japan.

The unions still have a job to do, representing their members' interests to governments and parliaments. And I think collective agreements still have a role, alongside markets and laws.

Any union that can't accept workers choosing their own representatives through universal franchise is finished.

I would not be opposed to devising a new system of pensions, in which one part was based on collective provision, but which also gave incentives for people to take out an additional, personal plan.

Fundamentally, American society is composed of individuals who don't go out of their way to do each other favours.

The unions may continue to decline, but if they do, it'll be their fault.

The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that's not equity, it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.