Author Description

The successive Labour governments which held power in the United Kingdom in the 1970s faced some unenviable problems. They operated in conditions of political weakness (not least in parliamentary terms) and in a difficult economic environment, and policy outcomes left much to be desired. While they have been castigated from the left for their alleged failure to pursue true socialist objectives, the dominant political rhetoric of the 1980s highlighted the shortcomings of policy and caricatured the period as one of simply incompetent and irresponsible economic policy-making. In the light of the sharp recession of the early 1980s that caricature should always have seemed more than a little unfair, but the economic recovery that set in around the middle of the decade led to a reinforcement of the caricature. Aiming to set the record straight, this book attempts to cover the whole gamut of economic policy by presenting 16 studies written by individual expert authors. The first chapter is a narrative description of the period, reinforced by a calendar of events and a statistical appendix. The remaining chapters review the individual policy areas, starting with overall demand management policy. Whilst the book is not intended to reflect an agreed line - and several differences of interpretation between different authors are to be found - it seemed right to ensure that these interpretations were confronted by one another and tested against the views of those who were influential as policy makers or advisors.