This is funny. William Lazonick has demonstrated (to my satisfaction) that the British economy tends to be less "organization-oriented", and more laissez faire than the US economy, which in turn is similarly situated in relation to Japan. As Lazonick points out:
In historical perspective, compared with Britain the American
corporate system has been over the course of the twentieth
century far more organization-oriented, particularly in terms of
its relations with managerial personnel and its control over
financial resources for industrial development. ... This
organization orientation --- manifested in what has been called
"the managerial revolution in American business" [Alfred
Chandler] --- is, moreover, a prime reason why US enterprises and
the US economy have persistently outperformed their British
counterparts during this century. ("The Anglo-Saxon Corporate
System", in *The Corporate Triangle*, pp. 3-4.)
Of course Blair and Lafontaine's little pirouette is merely show. They both know that "free enterprise" is just a crude word for class warfare. Lafontaine is slightly less free to practice it than Blair is, hence the posture.
Bill