The post-war period has seen British industry experiencing slower growth than competing economies for a variety of possible reasons: failure to adapt rapidly enough to changing technologies, problems of industrial relations, etc. Margaret Ackrill's book looks at how government intervention has affected the performance of British industry from the nationalisation drive of the Attlee government to the current push towards privatisation, and offers a concise account of the many political factors which have affected the recent history of the British economy: planning, regional aid, wage and price intervention, growth and decline of union power, the use of North Sea oil, membership of the EEC and EFTA, and reponse to international competition.


The post-war period has seen British industry experiencing slower growth than competing economies for a variety of possible reasons: failure to adapt rapidly enough to changing technologies, problems of industrial relations, etc. Margaret Ackrill's book looks at how government intervention has affected the performance of British industry from the nationalisation drive of the Attlee government to the current push towards privatisation, and offers a concise account of the many political factors which have affected the recent history of the British economy: planning, regional aid, wage and price intervention, growth and decline of union power, the use of North Sea oil, membership of the EEC and EFTA, and reponse to international competition.