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The Myth of Mr Butskell: The Politics of British Economic Policy, 1950â€“55

By (author) Scott Kelly

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This title was first published in 2003:It is often assumed that a general consensus existed between the post-war Labour and Conservative governments in matters of economic policy. Indeed, by 1954, The Economist was able to satirise the situation with the invention of â€™Mr Butskellâ€™, a fictitious political figure created by an amalgam of the names of Hugh Gaitskell and R A Butler. For decades afterwards the character of Mr Butskell came to personify the idea of a consensus over economic policy that was only broken with the election of the Thatcher government in 1979. The longevity of the Butskell figure suggests that the post-war consensus was a given fact, but on what basis are these assumptions made? The purpose of this work is to reassess the historical basis of Mr Butskell by examining the conduct of economic policy from the moment Hugh Gaitskell joined the Treasury in 1950 as Stafford Crippâ€™s deputy, to Rab Butlerâ€™s departure in December 1955. Through a careful examination of the evidence, it is demonstrated that contrary to the prevailing view of this period, there was no consensus about the extent to which the economy should be controlled and how it should be managed, and that there was a sustained argument over the use of physical controls, monetary policy and direct taxation. The book examines Gaitskellâ€™s economic thought and the underlying economic and political rationales for the positions taken by the Labour and Conservative Parties. In examining the structure of economic policy making, this book demonstrates that ministerial determination of policy is far more important than previous scholars have assumed, which explains why a developing consensus among civil servants about the conduct of economic policy is not necessarily reflected in outputs.