The British experiment

Governments rarely set out explicitly the assumptions underlying their economic policies (it is even rarer, for more understandable reasons, for Opposition parties to do the same). This Government is proving something of an exception. In PUBLIC MONEY, December 1981, we published the text of a speech by the then Chief Economic Adviser, Sir Terry Burns, which provoked,, in the next issue, a monetarist rebuttal from Richard Jackman.

Burns speech dealt with the Government's policies towards the economy in general and the public sector in particular. Lawson's speech, which was given as the fifth Mais lecture at the City of London Business School in June this year, is less technically explicit and barely mentions the public sector as such. But in emphasising as he does the political no less than the economic nature of the ‘the British experiment, ‘ he puts the battle against trade union power at the forefront of the Government's thinking.

His message, therefore, is clear and stark for those working in the public sector: the Government will seek to keep up the pressure for privatisation, far beyond the areas so far covered; they will strive to decentralise wage bargaining to reduce the impact of national agreements; and they will continue to use the public sector to lead down private sector wage increases.