Abstract
In this chapter, we will seek to provide an outline of Conservative policymaking in the 1960s and 1970s. We will seek to show how the three models of supply-side reform, the New Realism, and Powellism competed with one another for primacy. We will also indicate the processes through which this competition took place. Policymaking fell into three distinct sub-periods. The first (1964–1970) saw the Party preparing to regain power following its election defeat in 1964, based on a sharp revision of the Macmillanite policies of the early 1960s. In the second period (1970–1974), the Conservatives in government struggled to implement the programme devised in the 1960s. The third period, from 1974–1979, saw the Tories re-evaluate their approach.
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Notes
Anna Gambles, Protection and Politics: Conservative Economic Discourse, 1815–1852 (Woodbridge, 1999) p. 77. Many thought so after 1846 as well: see ibid. p. 203.
David Eastwood, ‘Tories and Markets: Britain 1800–1850’ in M. Bevir and F. Trentmann (eds) Markets in Historical Contexts (Cambridge, 2004) pp. 70–89, at p. 75, citing Southey in 1807.
Hugh Cecil, Conservatism (London, 1912) pp. 139, 169–170.
Martin Daunton, Wealth and Welfare (Oxford, 2007) pp. 232–235.
See: Daniel Ritschel, The Politics of Planning: The Debate on Economic Planning in Britain in the 1930s (Oxford, 1997) chapter 5 and at p. 345.
Save, in 1956, to strengthen aspects of RPM: see Basil Yamey, Resale Price Maintenance and Shoppers’ Choice (London, IEA, 1964: 3rd edn, first published 1960) pp. 39–41.
Philip Ziegler, Edward Heath: The Authorised Biography (London, 2010) p. 148; see also Heath, The Course of My Life, p. 259; Prior, A Balance of Power, p.43. The critics included a future PM, Margaret Thatcher: Budd Interview.
Jock Bruce-Gardyne and Nigel Lawson, The Power Game: An Examination of Decision-Making in Government (London, 1968) p. 115.
See: John Hoffman, The Conservative Party in Opposition: 1945–51 (London, 1964);
Harriet Jones, ‘A Bloodless Counter-Revolution: the Conservative Party and the Defence of Inequality, 1945–51’ in H. Jones and M. Kandiah (eds) The Myth of Consensus: New Views on British History, 1945–64 (Basingstoke, 1996) pp. 1–16; Michael Kandiah, ‘Conservative Leaders, Strategy — and “Consensus”? 1945–1964’ in ibid. pp. 58–78.
Iain Macleod and Angus Maude (eds) One Nation: a Tory Approach to Social Problems (London, CPC, 1950) pp. 18, 20.
For the ‘One Nation’ Group generally, see David Seawright, ‘One Nation’, in K. Hickson (ed.) The Political Thought of the Conservative Party since 1945 (Basingstoke, 2005) pp. 69–90.
Richard Law, Return from Utopia (London, 1950) especially pp. 52–53, 68–97, 98–122 and 190/191. Law was heavily influenced by Hayek: see pp. 10, 80, 100/101.
Neil Rollings, ‘Poor Mr Butskell: A Short Life, Wrecked by Schizophrenia’? Twentieth Century British History, vol. 5, no. 2 (1994) pp. 183–205 at p. 203.
Scott Kelly, The Myth of Mr. Butskell: The Politics of British Economic Policy, 1950–55 (Aldershot, 2002) pp. 222–223.
See also: Alan Booth, ‘Inflation, Expectations, and the Political Economy of Conservative Britain, 1951–1964’, The Historical Journal, vol. 43, no. 3 (Sept. 2000) pp. 827–847.
Ralph Harris, Politics Without Prejudice (London, 1956) pp. 159, 166. See also http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/Chronology.pdf, accessed 15.7.13.
Angus Maude and Enoch Powell (eds) Change is Our Ally: A Tory Approach to Industrial Problems, by the One Nation Group of MPs (London, CPC, 1954) pp. 96–98.
Tony Crosland, The Future of Socialism (London, 1980, first published 1956) p. 169.
The idea that Tory social democrats had achieved total victory for Gaitkellism might have surprised the gloomy revisionists gathered in Hampstead in 1959 following a third Labour election defeat: Susan Crosland, Tony Crosland (London, 1982) pp. 92–94;
Tony Benn (Ruth Winstone, ed.) Years of Hope: Diaries, Letters and Papers, 1940–1962 (London, 1994) pp. 317–321.
Richard Butler, The Art of the Possible: The Memoirs of Lord Butler (London, 1971) pp. 146/147.
See, for example, Jim Phillips, ‘The Postwar Political Consensus and Industrial Unrest in the Docks, 1945–55’, Twentieth-Century British History, vol. 6, no. 3 (1995) pp. 302–319.
Thorneycroft’s letter of resignation dated 6.1.58 at ibid. See generally, Stanley Crooks, Peter Thorneycroft (Winchester, 2007) pp. 88–92.
Reginald Maudling, Memoirs (London, 1978) pp. 102–104.
Peter Thorneycroft et al., Not Unanimous: A Rival Verdict to Radcliffe’s on Money (London, IEA, 1960) pp. 1–14.
Stuart Ball, Baldwin and the Conservative Party: The Crisis of 1929–1931 (London, 1988) pp. 203/204.
Tim Bale, The Conservative Party from Thatcher to Cameron (paperback edn, London, 2011) p. 13. For the history of the department, see: Ramsden, The Making of Conservative Party Policy.
For this policymaking exercise generally, see: Mark Garnett, ‘Planning for Power: 1964–1970’, pp. 192–218, in S. Ball and A. Seldon (eds) Recovering Power: The Conservatives in Opposition since 1867 (Basingstoke, 2005);
Brendon Sewill, ‘Policy-Making for Heath’, pp. 55–78, in Alistair Cooke (ed.) Tory Policy Making, The Conservative Research Department 1929–2009 (London: CRD, 2009).
Conservative Party, Putting Britain Right Ahead (London, 1965).
Conservative Party, 1966 Conservative Party General Election Manifesto, Action not Words (London, 1966).
Conservative Party, 1970 Conservative Party General Election Manifesto, A Better Tomorrow (London, 1970).
See, for example, John Chown, ‘Why the Tories should float the pound’, Crossbow, vol. 13, no. 49 (Oct. 1969) pp. 15–17; Editorial, ‘Set the pound free’, The Swinton Journal, vol. 15, no. 2 (1969) pp. 3–8. As to the position of the leadership, see Chapter 7.
W.H. Greenleaf, ‘The Character of Modern British Conservatism’ in R. Benewick et al. (eds) Knowledge and Belief in Politics; the Problem of Ideology (London, 1973) pp. 177–212.
For confirmation from political practitioners, see, for example, Angus Maude, The Common Problem (London, 1969) pp. 257–258.
IEA, The Rebirth of Britain (London, 1964). Powell contributed: see pp. 257–267.
For a full, but partisan, account, see Simon Heffer, Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell (London, 1998) pp. 449–459.
Enoch Powell, Exchange Rates and Liquidity: an essay on the relationship of international trade and liquidity to fixed exchange rates and the price of gold (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1967).
Enoch Powell, edited by John Wood, Freedom and Reality (London, 1969) pp. 84, 92.
Robert Rhodes James, Ambitions and Realities; British Politics 1964–70 (London, 1972) pp. 175, 192–193, 198.
T.E. Utley, Enoch Powell: The Man and His Thinking (London, 1968) pp. 134–137.
Christopher Lord, British Entry to the European Community under the Heath Government of 1970–4 (Aldershot, 1993) pp. 99–105, and see Chapter 7.
Alec Cairncross, The British Economy since 1945: Economic Policy and Performance, 1945–1995 (2nd edn. Oxford, 1995) p. 193.
Enoch Powell, Book Review of Hayek, The Swinton Journal, vol. 18, no.3 (1972) pp. 57–58.
Enoch Powell, Inflation (London, 1973) p. 5.
Julian Critchley, ‘Strains and Stresses in the Conservative Party’, The Political Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 4 (Oct. 1973) pp. 401–410, at pp. 403–405.
Nicholas Ridley, The New Capitalism (London, 1974).
See, for example, Andrew Roth, Enoch Powell: Tory Tribune (London, 1968).
Patrick Cosgrave, ‘Heath as Prime Minister’, The Political Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 4 (Oct. 1973) pp. 435–446, at p. 446.
Andrew Gamble, The Conservative Nation (London; Boston, 1974) p. 230.
Maurice Peston, ‘Conservative Economic Policy and Philosophy’ The Political Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 4 (Oct. 1973) pp. 411–424, at p. 422.
See, for example, Michael Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics, and Other Essays (London, 1962), pp. 169–172;
Michael Oakeshott, On Human Conduct (London, 1975) pp. 228–233.
Daniel Rodgers, Age of Fracture (London, 2011).
Samuel Brittan, Is there an Economic Consensus? An attitude survey (London, 1973) pp. 21–22.
See: A.W. Phillips, ‘The Relation Between Unemployment and the Rate of Change of Money Wage Rates in the United Kingdom, 1861–1857’, Economica vol. 25 (1958) pp. 283–299, at p. 299.
Peter Jay, ‘Englanditis’, in The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failures in Britain’ (New York, 1977).
William Waldegrave, The Binding of Leviathan (London, 1978) p. 148.
Samuel Brittan Interview. Brittan was a longstanding critic of Incomes Policy: Samuel Brittan, ‘Why British Incomes Policies Have Failed’ in R. Charter, A. Dean and R. Elliott, Incomes Policy (Oxford, 1981) pp. 168–179. Many interviewees made similar points.
William Rees-Mogg, The Reigning Error: the Crisis of World Inflation (London, 1974).
See: Peter Jay, A general hypothesis of employment, inflation, and politics: sixth Wincott memorial lecture delivered at St. John’s Smith Square, Westminster on 4 December, 1975 (London, published for the Wincott Foundation by the Institute of Economic Affairs, 1976);
Peter Jay, ‘The Workers Cooperative Economy’, in The Crisis for Western Political Economy: and Other Essays (London, 1984) at pp. 56–92, paper delivered, 17.3.77.
Peter Clarke, Liberals and Social Democrats (Cambridge, 1978).
See Letter, Marquand to Jay, 4.3.76: Jay’s views in A General Hypothesis of Employment, Inflation, and Politics are ‘in some ways quite close to’ those of the Manifesto Group of the PLP (Marquand was then a Jenkinsite Labour MP); Letter to Michael Meacher MP, 14.12.76, commenting on draft of book by Meacher arguing for market socialism on a rather different basis: PJAY 4/3/76 and 4/4/27, respectively. The book was eventually published as Michael Meacher, Socialism with a Human Face: The Political Economy of Britain in the 1980s (London, 1982). Meacher was a close ally of Tony Benn.
Letter to Jay, 13.3.76, PJAY 4/4/4. For a fuller version of the argument that Samuel Brittan was no Tory, see Roger Middleton, ‘Brittan on Britain: “The economic contradictions of democracy” redux’, Historical Journal, vol. 54, no.4 (2011) pp. 1141–1168.
Brittan was himself dismissive of the Left/Right demarcation: see Samuel Brittan, Left or Right: the Bogus Dilemma (London, 1968).
Ian Gilmour, Inside Right: A Study of Conservatism (London, 1977) p. 242 (quoting Butler).
For similar views, see Chris Patten, The Tory Case (Harlow, 1983).
See Blake and Patten (eds) The Conservative Opportunity, p. 1. See also: Patrick Cosgrave, ‘The Failure of the Conservative Party, 1945–75’, in The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failures in Britain’ (New York, 1977) pp. 98–125.
See, for example, Arthur Seldon (ed.) The Emerging Consensus…?: Essays on the interplay between ideas, interests and circumstances in the first 25 years of the IEA (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1981) p. xvii.
For education, see, for example, Arthur Seldon, Charge (London, 1977) pp. 62–82.
For health, see, for example, ibid. pp. 83–96, and Dennis Lees, ‘Health Through Choice’, pp. 21–94, in Ralph Harris (ed.) Freedom or Free-for-All?: Essays in Welfare, Trade, and Choice (2nd ed. rev. London, Institute of Economic Affairs, 1965).
For welfare, see, for example, Arthur Seldon, ‘Pensions for Prosperity’, in Ralph Harris (ed.) Radical Reaction; Essays in Competition and Affluence (2nd ed. rev. London, Institute of Economic Affairs, 1961) pp. 197–247.
For a full chronological list of publications covering the period 1957 to 1979, see Appendix F, pp. 235–246, in Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon (eds) Over-ruled on welfare: the increasing desire for choice in education and medicine and its frustration by ‘representative’ government: a 15-year investigation into private preferences and public policy based on surveys in 1963, 1965, 1970, 1978 into priced choice between state and private services (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1979).
See Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon (eds) Choice in Welfare 1965: second report on an enquiry conducted by Mass-Observation into the extent of knowledge and preference in State and private provision for education, health services and pensions (London, Institute of Economic Affairs, 1965) p. 62.
Letter, Harris to Powell, 25.9.73, POLL 1/1/20. For his view on the Heath government, see Ralph Harris, ‘A View from the Outside’ in British Economic Policy 1970–74 (London, IEA, 1975).
Andrew Denham and Mark Garnett, Keith Joseph (Chesham, 2001) pp. 195–225.
Milton Friedman, ‘The role of monetary policy’, The American Economic Review, 18 (1968) pp. 1–17;
Milton Friedman, The counter-revolution in monetary theory: first Wincott Memorial Lecture, delivered at Senate House, University of London, 16th September 1970 (London, 1970).
Brian Harrison, ‘Mrs Thatcher and the Intellectuals’, Twentieth Century British History (1994) vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 206–245, at pp. 214–219.
See also: Morrison Halcrow, Keith Joseph: A Single Mind (London, 1989) p. 67; and, for the perspective of the true believer, ‘Margaret Thatcher & the Centre for Policy Studies, 1974–79’, http://www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/CPS2.asp., accessed 16.7.13.
See Joseph draft prospectus, 7.6.74, IEA MSS Box 295 at http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/114763; Martin Wassell and Nigel Vinson, Why Britain needs a Social Market Economy (London, CPS, 1975).
Alfred Sherman, Paradoxes of Power: Reflections on the Thatcher Interlude (London, 2005) p. 51.
Minford, ‘Mrs Thatcher’s Economic Reform Programme’, at p. 94; Keith Joseph, The Social Market: Containing some lessons from Germany (London, 1992) pp. 20–21.
See, for example, James Bourlet and Michael Roots, Selsdon Policy Series No.1: Step by Step against Inflation (London, 1974).
Biffen wrote a foreword to Step by Step against Inflation, published in Sept. 1974; Bruce-Gardyne was a Vice-President from March 1974 — see David Alexander, Wanted, a Policy for Wealth (London, Selsdon Group) 1974.
Dieter Plehwe, ‘Introduction, pp. 1–42, in Mirowski and Plehwe (eds) The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective (Cambridge, 2009) Figure 1.1, p. 20. This network analysis shows the regular participants from Britain as being Harris, Hutt, Fisher, and Shenfield.
See off the record contemporaneous interviews with Patten and Adam Ridley: Hugo Young, The Hugo Young Papers: thirty years of British politics — off the record (London, 2008) at pp. 94/95, 96/97, 114/115.
Conservative Party, The Right Approach (London, 1976).
Conservative Party, The Right Approach to the Economy (London, 1977).
See, for the weakness of her position, Matthew Parris, Chance Witness: An Outsider’s Life in Politics (London, 2002) pp. 188–191.
Chris Patten, ‘The Thatcher Years’, pp. 79–93, in Alistair Cooke (ed.) Tory Policy Making, The Conservative Research Department 1929–2009 (London: CRD, 2009). at p. 85.
See Norman Barry, Hayek’s Social and Economic Philosophy (London, 1979).
Brittan, Is there an Economic Consensus?, p. 68, summarising the state of the debate. For a fuller version of this argument, see Milton Friedman, Inflation and Unemployment: The New Dimension of Politics (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1977).
See, for example, Congdon, Reflections On Monetarism, pp. 14–21, 27–30; and Tim Congdon, Money in a Free Society (New York, 2011) pp. 200–205.
See, for example, Milton Friedman, ‘The case for flexible exchange rates’ in Essays in Positive Economics (Chicago, 1953).
Gordon Pepper and Michael Oliver, Monetarism under Thatcher: Lessons for the Future (Cheltenham, 2001) p. 35.
Samuel Brittan, Second Thoughts on Full Employment Policy (Chichester, 1975) p. 113.
Samuel Brittan, The Economic Consequences of Democracy (London, 1977) pp. 128–131.
Alan Budd, The Politics of Economic Planning (London, 1978) pp. 11, 153.
Edmund Dell similarly argued that the emphasis should be on encouraging competition: Edmund Dell, Political Responsibility and Industry (London, 1973) esp. pp. 52–100.
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Williamson, A. (2015). Policymaking: Structures, Ideas and Influences. In: Conservative Economic Policymaking and the Birth of Thatcherism, 1964–1979. Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137460264_2
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