The State To Come

Description

The forthcoming General Election will be one of the most decisive in British post-war history. If the Conservatives were to win again, it would confirm that British democracy is a sham - that we live in a one party state and the electorate will exact no penalty for broken promises and the abuse of power. Will Hutton argues that the tories can no longer be trusted- the recent economic `growth' is little more than a catch-up from the lost recession years, while investment is still weak and inflation high; Black Wednesday revealed the Goverments economic incompetence; and taxes have risen by a record in post-war Britain. Tony Blair has skilfully exploited the Tory divisions and successfully remodelled his party- New Labour is reformist, committed to social justice, solidarity and achievable levels of equality. The years of Tory Goverment have revealed the shortcomings of a free-market economy- a big shift of economic power to the employers and a sharp rise in in equality. Will Hutton urges Labour not to embrace a Conservative agenda in economic terms but to deal with the challenge of structuring the free-market economy to get the best balance of growth and a good society, and to make fundemental choices over the character of the capitalism we want to develop.

Will Hutton was appointed chief executive of the Industrial Society in February 2000. He was previously editor of the Observer from March 1996 to July 1998, and then its Editor-in-Chief. A former stockbroker, he spent ten years with the BBC and from 1983 to 1988 was economics correspondent for BBC2's 'Newsnight'. He was economics editor of the Guardian from 1990 and became assistant editor in 1995. He was nominated Political Journalist of the Year by Granada Television's 'What the Papers Say' for his coverage of the 1992 ERM crisis. His book on Keynesian economics, The Revolution That Never Was, was published in 1986, and the bestselling The State We're In in 1995. He is a member of the governing council of the Policy Studies Institute, the Political Economy Research Centre and is a governor of the London School of Economics. He is a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and is on the editorial board of New Economy. In 1995 he became Chair of the Employment Policy Institute. Will Hutton is married with three children.