Editorial Comment

The fact that the Conservative Party won the general election in June means that its policy for the reform of the British system of industrial relations is now of immediate relevance to all who are concerned with that system—either as practitioners or as students. The industrial relations policies of the Conservatives have been tossed about in public debate and, in the process, may have lost some of their clarity. It would seem to us, therefore, that it is both important and relevant to examine exactly what the Conservative Party has said in its policy document, Fair Deal at Work,¹ and what major points were added at the Party's Conference last year.     

Whitehall's Half-Nelson on Small Business

Both Conservative and Labour Governments have discovered the small business and have pretended to assist its creation and expansion. Graham Dawson maintains that whatever the Government has done to encourage small business, it has done even more to depress and discourage it.     

Local Government Management

In the United Kingdom (UK), the Labour Government is seeking to achieve fundamental change in the way local authorities are led and managed. To this end, it has introduced political and managerial reforms, central to which is the concept of ‘best value’. This new agenda, to which local authorities must respond, builds upon the changes which resulted from the Conservative era 1979–1997. Although Labour has abolished the centrepiece of Conservative policy towards local government, i.e. compulsory competitive tendering (CCT), Labour shares the belief of successive Conservative governments that local authorities must radically improve the way services are delivered. This article considers the nature of the changed local government environment in the UK, including the role, policy and service provision debates which have occurred in local government. It provides a conceptual framework within which to consider the degree of change which has occurred in local authority management. A typology of responses to change and a model by which past and future change may be gauged are suggested.     

In from the cold? Ben Roberts and Conservative industrial relations reform

Over the course of his career Professor Ben Roberts became an increasingly vocal critic of the trade union movement and a firm advocate of the case for legal restrictions on their activities. The growing influence of neoliberal ideas inside the Conservative Party, driven by think tanks such as the Institute of Economic Affairs, could have provided him with the opportunity to exert some influence over industrial relations policymaking, after years of political isolation. In fact Ben Roberts remained on the margins of the policy networks that constructed the Thatcherite programme of industrial relations reform. His labour movement background and lack of involvement in think tank seminars and activities made it difficult for him to penetrate the tight and cohesive networks that were integral to Conservative policymaking. In any case his main focus was institution building in the academic world of industrial relations, rather than policymaking in the political world, and his legacy continues today in the British Journal of Industrial Relations and the International Labour and Employment Relations Association.     

Creeping Protectionism

Mrs Thatcher's trade policy is not the model of free-market liberalism her opponents claim it to be David Greenaway examines the growth in 'voluntary' export restraints imposed by the Conservative Government on the UK's trading partners, and explains how this cost falls on the consumer by cushioning domestic inefficiency against competition from overseas.     

THE ORANGE BOOK: EIGHT YEARS ON

The Orange Book had an important influence on Liberal Democrat thinking, particularly on economics, tax, and public service reform. Without the policy changes which the book and its authors anticipated, it is much more difficult to imagine the governing Liberal Democrat‐Conservative coalition being formed and sustained. This paper examines the origins and impact of the book, and sketches out future directions for policy development.     

Peace, Justice, and Economic Reform

Abstract . Is justice necessary for peace? There can be no justice while people have unresolved grievances, but peace is more than the absence of strife. It is harmony. Justice is the principles of equality and evenhandedness that command and prohibit the use of force in resolving conflicts. Justice is not necessary for peace, but it does facilitate it. Conservative, majoritarian, egalitarian and contractarian efforts to specify justice all fail to respect persons in crucial ways and cannot be expected to lead to peace. The justice that leads to peace is classical liberalism, with its insistence that each person own himself or herself, augmented by the principle of equal rights to the opportunities provided by nature, as advanced by Henry George.     

post-war economics' dead end (part 1)

In the first of two articles Sir Alfred Sherman, advisor to Conservative leaders in the 1970s and 1980s and a founder of the Centre for Policy Studies, claims that post-war economics has reached a dead-end.     

towards relevant economic doctrines

In the second of two articles, Sir Alfred Sherman, advisor to Conservative leaders in the 1970s and 1980s and a founder of the Centre for Policy Studies, continues his review of post-war economic policy and calls for a new tableau economique that would identify the contradictions in economic policy.     

Political opinion polls and the stock market

It is a part of the received wisdom of the American and British stock exchanges that the market prefers a Conservative administration. However, attempts to test this proposition by examining market returns about the time of elections have produced contrasting and sometimes indecisive results. The present paper assumes that election outcomes will be largely anticipated by the market on the basis of published opinion forecasts. The paper examines the impact of opinion poll information on share prices over the period 1960–79—one largely characterized by two-party competition. It is found that opinion movements towards the Conservative Party do exert a significant positive impact on the market, but only where the two main parties are relatively evenly balanced.     

Organ Transplants: Markets v. Morality?

In Economic Affairs, Vol. 7 No. 1, Marvin Brams suggested that individuals should be free to sell body parts for profit. Michael McNair-Wilson, Conservative MP for Newbury, and currently awaiting the donation of a kidney for transplant, presents his ethical objections to a market in organs. Professor Brams maintains that the suffering caused by suppression of the market should force a reconsideration of the ethics.     

Medium term Prospects for the UK economy

Prospects for the economy several years ahead are even more uncertain than projections of the near future. e overnment policy is currently particularly uncertain e iven that a general election is due to occur in the next 15 months. This article presents three 'alternative scenarios', one based on Conservative Party policies, the others on the spirit of Labour Party policies.
The first case described is our central forecast. It is a continuation of current Conservative Party policies. The second and third cases are based on our interpretation of Labour Party policies. These policies are assumed to involve widespread use of government intervention, planning, wage and import controls. Monetary targets are relaxed or abandoned. We consider two possible out comes of such policies. Under one outcome the policies are relatively successjul in boosting output and employment without greatly raising inflation. Under the other out comes, output is lower than on current policies and inflationt much higher.     

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND THE BRITISH ECONOMY IN THE 1990s: MRS THATCHER'S LEGACY

The authors challenge the view that the UK Conservative governments during the 1980s achieved important advances in industrial performance through the abandonment of corporatist policies that allowed management to regain the initiative and push through changes in work organization. The article takes issue with the idea that collective labour institutions necessarily impair economic efficiency, and it points up important connections between Thatcher's offensive against organized labour and the enduring weaknesses in human capital and technology. The article has three sections: the first examines labour markets and industrial relations; the second analyses government regulation; and the third assesses trends and prospects for the future, with emphasis on employment flexibility and labour productivity. The authors conclude with some comments on future prospects in the context of Britain's fuller integration in Europe.     

THE REPORT OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY TAX REFORM COMMISSION

Four economists give their views on the economics and political economy of the Conservative Party Tax Reform Commission Report.     

Walking on water? performance and industrial relations under Thatcher

The claim that Britain's economy has been transformed by an economic miracle in the 1980s is critically evaluated, as is the entrenched view that unions have damaged productivity and competitiveness. Reviewing the empirical evidence, this article argues that after 10 years of Conservative government supply side economic performance remains weak.     

Still No Economic Liberalism

The Conservative Government has long contended its allegionce to open markets and a liberal society. Lord (Jo) Grimond, a former leader of the Liberal Party, and an MP for 33 years, orgues that there is little sign of the emergence of such an attitude in economic and political thought since 1979. He calls for a more wholehearted adoption of the market by Conservotives and Alliance alike.     

Law commentary: Three faces of democracy and three missing persons: the Trade Union Act 1984

The Conservative government described the 1984 Trade Union Act as a piece of legislation to ‘give the unions back to their members'. This article examines the concept of democracy present in the Act and analyses its implications for trade unions and industrial relations.     

Rookes v. Barnard and the trade union question in British politics

In the 1950s, given the scope of the Trade Disputes Act 1906 that had granted immunity against specific torts (civil wrongs) to organisers of industrial action, the courts had little role in industrial relations. Hence, the importance of the House of Lords decision in 1964 that, in threatening to strike to secure Douglas Rookes's removal from the Heathrow design office of the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation after his resignation from the union, Alfred Barnard and others had used unlawful means because a threat to break a contract of employment came within the tort of intimidation that was unprotected by the Trade Disputes Act's statutory immunities, and thus, they were liable to pay damages to Rookes. The legal arguments deployed are analysed within growing unease in the Conservative Party and among employers at the emergence of workplace union organisation and national strikes. Despite being partially neutralised by the Trade Disputes Act 1965, Rookes was a harbinger of a new judicial activism that outflanked trade unions' tort immunities by creating novel common law liabilities. This in turn laid the political basis for subsequent Conservative legislation to restrict and regulate trade unions and industrial action, a project that is ongoing.     

SIR WALDRON SMITHERS AND THE LONG WALK TO FINCHLEY

The television drama ‘Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley’ has Sir Waldron Smithers strongly objecting to Thatcher's selection as a Conservative candidate prior to the 1950 General Election. It is more likely that Smithers would have found her a kindred ideological spirit: both shared an anti‐socialist commitment and admiration for Hayek's ‘The Road to Serfdom’.     

Will Labour’s Economic Programme Work?

If Labour is elected to government on 1 May, it will inherit the lowest inflation of any incoming government over the last fifty years but the highest unemployment. At the same time, public borrowing is running at an unsustainable high level. In this article, Andrew Sentance examines Labour's plans to expand employment while reducing public borrowing and containing inflation. He argues that Labour's economic programme could work but a number of pitfalls need to be avoided. Monetary policy will need to be tightened after the Election and the fiscal squeeze implied by Conservative spending plans maintained – if necessary through higher taxes. The benefits from Labour's employment policies could also be undermined by a high minimum wage, particularly if applied to young workers.