ECONOMICS

THE HISTORIC DEBATE ON ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE

Introduced by Guy Whitmarsh on 24 September 1998

The speaker began by recalling that concern over British economic performance was a matter of Government review over one hundred years ago. The debate has continued ever since.
The concern most frequently advanced was that wealthy industrialists used their money to become ‘country gentlemen’ rather than continue to expand their businesses.
Yet the standard of living in the United Kingdom has continued to rise, even though it has risen faster in some of the other main industrialised nations. In the speaker’s view most of the major upheavals of this century seemed to have made little difference. The two World Wars made little change, although the loss of captive markets with the end of Empire had led to the economic problems of the 60s and 70s, combined with the disturbance of the markets brought on by the oil price rises in the 70s.
In recent times there had been some notable contributions to the debate. James Callaghan in his Ruskin College lecture had spoken of the inadequacies of education; Keith Joseph had praised ‘English Culture and the Decline of Industrial Spirit’ by Martin Weiner in 1981 and given a copy to every member of the Cabinet.
The Royal Society of Arts and the Government had launched Industry Year in 1986, followed by the campaign ‘Industry Matters’, and the book by Will Hutton ‘The State We Are In’ has been widely read with, perhaps, some influence on the last election.
The discussion looked at some of the ‘solutions’ attempted. It had been hoped that the new universities established towards the end of the Victorian era, like Birmingham, might promote excellence in industry but the syllabus had steadily widened to follow the established university pattern.
In the 60s working groups from different industries had been sent to the USA to study methods but these ventures did not produce the changes hoped for.
Some major developments had been promoted, like the Brabazon and Concorde aircraft. There were varied opinions on their effectiveness.
Now we had debate on the Third Way. It was agreed that thought and planning were needed on the growth of global markets and demographic changes in our society.
The next discussion will look at the approach of Government to Research and Development.
Rodney Tye