Economic Strategy and the Labour Party Politics and policy-making, 1
Economic Strategy and the Labour Party examines the nature and development of the Labour party's economic policy between 1970 and 1983. Drawing on extensive archival research, Mark Wickham-Jones analyses the radical nature of the new proposals adopted by
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Economic Strategy and the Labour Party Politics and policy-making, 1970-83 Mark Wickham-Jones
Lecturer in Politics University 0/ Bristol
First published in Great Britain 1996 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue reeord for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-0-333-69372-8 DOI 10.1057/9780230373679
ISBN 978-0-230-37367-9 (eBook)
First published in the United States of Ameriea 1996 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Seholarly and Referenee Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-16405-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wickham-Jones, Mark, 1962Econornic strategy and the Labour Party : politics and policy -making, 1970-831 Mark Wickham-Jones. p. cm. Includes bibliographieal references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-16405-8 (cloth) I. Great Britain-Economic policy-1945- 2. Labour Party (Great Britain) I. Title. HC256.6.w49 1996 338.941-17 This document emphasised the use of fiscal policy in economic management. There would be some planning to coordinate the economy, but it would take a very weak form, similar to that proposed by Crosland in The Future 01 Socialism, and would not me an areturn to wartime controls. Similarly, just as Crosland rejected a formal wages policy, so too did Labour in this period. Labour's policy documents were supportive of the private sector. They accepted the morality of the market and rejected the idea that socialism must involve changes in ownership. Industry and Society went so far as to claim that 'under increasingly professional managements, large firms, are as a whole serving the nation weIl'. 18 Signposts [or the Sixties argued that 'in terms of efficiency, these vast, centralised concerns are often, but by no means always, justified.'? (It went on to criticise the unaccountable nature of such power.) Industry and Society, passed overwhelmingly by the 1957 party conference, was perhaps the highpoint of Revisionist influence within Labour. Many saw the document as a substitute for any extensions of public ownership. W. A. Robson wrote of 'the abandonment of public enterprise' .20 Later documents were also largely Revisionist in orientation. Signposts [or the Sixties, produced in 1961, was extrernely vague about public ownership. Earlier, Labour's manifesto for the 1959 eleetion was very much in line with Revisionist thought. It attacked inequality and offered improved pensions, education and health. The seetion on economic policy and public ownership was brief. Steel and road haulage would be taken
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Economic Strategy and the Labour Party
over but that was it, unless after thorough enquiry an industry was found to be failing the nation: 'We have no other plans for further nattonalisation.'!' It also reflected the Revisionist's claim that electoral considerations should be paramount. Socialism was mentioned only three times. Labour appeared to have taken on the Downsian-type electoral strategy that Revisionists advoca
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