A dove with a touch of hawk

Sir Samuel Brittan has long been a national institution. As economics editor of the Observer in the early 1960s and the principal economic commentator on the Financial Times from 1966 to his retirement in 1998, he wrote an influential weekly newspaper column for almost 40 years. He still contributes to the Financial Times, often to great effect. Consistent themes in his writing have been support for free markets over state planning, and the advocacy of open- ness towards other countries in trade, investment and migration.

He has managed to keep his own party-political preferences shrouded in enough uncertainty to have influenced all three main parties. Although probably closest to the Conservatives, his work undoubtedly played a critical role in the 1970s and 1980s in moving young and open-minded left-wingers towards the doctrines now described as ‘New Labour’. By helping to persuade the leaders of British opinion that the free market is the best form of economic organisation yet devised, he has been an immense force for good. Brittan can fairly claim to be the George Orwell of British post-war financial journalism.

But Brittan has wanted to be something more than a superb commentator. His ambitions emerge from the titles of his 11 previously published books, which included Capitalism and the Permissive Society, A Restatement of Economic Liberalism, The Economic Consequences of Democracy, The Role and Limits of Government and Capitalism with a Human Face. One might expect these volumes to consist of heavyweight and original arguments drawn together in a consecutive text, in which the later chapters build on the earlier and the points made in every chapter contribute to the demonstration of the conclusions.