Control of the Economy — Just Good Housekeeping?

Abstract

One way in which Mrs Thatcher’s governments in the 1980s have been remarkable is in their attitude to the Budget. They have led public opinion towards attitudes of prudent financing and good housekeeping in the expressed belief that this would encourage growth and prosperity. The return to Victorian values has embraced those that Mr Micawber aspired to but so sadly neglected: ‘annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.’