Nigel Lawson: 1932-2023

Nigel Lawson has died at the age of 91. He was the editor of The Spectator from 1966 to 1970 and then a Conservative politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1983 until 1989. Below is an article written by Lawson in 1967 on the need for ‘An Alternative Economic Policy’, written some 16 years before he entered No. 11 under Margaret Thatcher and was able to realise that vision.

So far as the short term is concerned, it is generally agreed, right across the political board, that the state should intervene at any rate to maintain full employment, to prevent undue inflation and generally to iron out so far as is possible the fluctuations in the trade cycle. Nor is there a fundamental difference between Conservatives and Socialists about how this ought to be done. But once this short-term intervention has been achieved—and even this is a good deal easier said than done—the question arises whether it is desirable for the state to intervene further in order to influence the long-term development of the economy.