Introduction

Abstract

For more than 25 years I worked as a British government economist. When I entered the civil service, it was still imbued with the nineteenth-century spirit of the Northcote-Trevelyan reforms. We believed our task was, incorruptibly, to provide disinterested advice to our political masters. Although the British civil service was notoriously sparing in admitting the wider public to its deliberations, within the service there was open, wide-ranging discussion. As economists, we believed our task was to help our political masters produce a just, equitable and efficient society by providing advice on the structure of economic institutions and the economy. The crucial economic task of government was to safeguard the public good by redressing the untrammelled market’s inevitable inequities and imbalances, both domestic and international.