The three most and three least successful policy reforms of the post-war period

John Redwood has been interviewed by the TaxPayers' Alliance.  The TPA asks him what he thinks are the most successful and least successful public policy reforms of the post-war period.

For "most" he nominates council house sales, introducing competition into the public monopolies and floating the pound.

For "least" he nominates nationalisation, the Bank of England reforms of 1997/98 and transferring too much power to the EU.

Here are some others:

• Most successful: The trade union reforms of the early 1980s and the prison works policy of the mid-90s which turned the tide on crime.
• Least successful: Brown's complex tax credits which have greatly complicated the war on poverty and the £1 trillion largely wasted by Brown since 1997.
  

Comments

[Conservative Homer]

The poll tax surely also. So unsuccessful they never really got off the ground.

The tax credits system are hugely inefficient, ineffective and expensive. However, i doubt their goal was for it to ever work, just to make more people feel they have to vote labour to get by every month. I dare say labour regards them as a sucess for that reason alone.

[Conservative Homer]

And surrendering our freedom to the EU of course.

I should stop now, i seem to be coming up with a lot of Conservative initiatives!

[johnC]

Most successful: denationalisation

Least successful: comprehensive education

[chips of brookfield]

Poll Tax!

[Andrew Lilico]

I think Redwood is right - the introduction of the Tripartite system and the changes to banking regulation and the financial stability regime in 1997/8 may well go down in history as amongst the most disastrous reforms since WWII.

[comstock]

"Most successful: The trade union reforms of the early 1980s"

Sadly, this was indeed very sucessful- at trampling the average working man into the dust and paving the way for todays fat cats :(

[Jack Stone]

I agree with Comstock to a certain extent. The reforms to trade union law did a lot of good but I think they went too far and crippled the trade union movement from pursuing many just disputes with employers.
There needs to be a balence between employers and trade unions. I think that balence as shifted far too far towards the employer.

[David Sergeant]

Comstock has a point. The trade union reforms only dealt with half the issues. It dealt with the mass voting shambles and instant walk outs and also forced leaders to address employment issues instead of socialist politics. However, the reforms never addressed the question of trade unions supporting individual members. To-day it is quite usual for trade union members to employ lawyers to get their point over. Expensive, time wasting and producing silly results as case law.

[Bill]

Whenever I have disliked my terms and conditions of employment I have sought to negotiate them with my employer and if this has not been to my satisfaction, I have left. The law should provide minimum standards but should not be used by politicians and judicial
activists to unfairly distort businesses and render them uncompetitive.

[Tanuki]

Comstock's 100%-wrong: the trade-union reforms [in particular, doing away with the idea of the 'closed shop' and making political-funds opt-in rather than the default] were massive steps forward in throwing off the smothering blanket of unionism.

If anyone really needs to learn from this, look at the history of the EEPTU under the leadership of Frank Chapple: he kicked out the communists and converted his union into something which actually fought for the rights of its members and their freedom to work for whoever paid them the best. That this seriously upset the rest of the union movement [who seemed committed to sticking with the old 'nobody is better than the worst' attitude] is something we surely must be happy about?

[comstock]

"Whenever I have disliked my terms and conditions of employment I have sought to negotiate them with my employer and if this has not been to my satisfaction, I have left"

Which is fine, Bill, if you have that option. To be fair you also admit "The law should provide minimum standards " which it should. But the 1979-97 govt did away with much of that- the wages councils being the most obvious but also giving employees no rights for 2 years after employment starts :(

Tanuki said "the trade-union reforms were massive steps forward in throwing off the smothering blanket of unionism."

I admit things had to change from the way they were in the 70s. But these reforms went *way* too far.....

[Chips of Brookfield]

Most successful - NHS, free secondary education, union reforms.

Least successful - Poll tax, Clause 28, price/wage policies.

[Joe James Broughton]

Is it really that important?
Government is about taking an overall responsibility for a whole range of policy and a good government should aim to do all of it well.
There are so many different contexts and knock on effects when judging the most and least successful - that's the only way you can assess it properly.

[passing leftie]

Most successful:

The NHS. As Nye Bevan said:

"The National Health service and the Welfare State have come to be used as interchangeable terms, and in the mouths of some people as terms of reproach. Why this is so it is not difficult to understand, if you view everything from the angle of a strictly individualistic competitive society. A free health service is pure Socialism and as such it is opposed to the hedonism of capitalist society."

The Abortion Act

The Human Rights Act.

Least Successful (all under Thatcher):
The destruction of local government by the introduction of quangos.

Monetarism, leading to the destruction of much of the UK's industrial base and mass unemployment, funded by regressive tax increases.

The abolition of credit controls leading to massive debt, homelessness and repossessions.

[Jack Stone]

I agree with passing leftie about the abolition of credit controls.
Government is there to protect people from one another I also think it should protect people from the misdeeds of companies and I am afraid many financial institutions have took advantage of some people`s desperate need for money by leading them money they can`t possibly afford to repay.

[Dale]

"Government is there to protect people from one another I also think it should protect people from the misdeeds of companies and I am afraid many financial institutions have took advantage of some people`s desperate need for money by leading them money they can`t possibly afford to repay."

On the planet most of us live on, government is there to govern.

[Graeme Archer]

"Passing" Leftie should rename him/herself: "Resident" Leftie (and a good thing too!).

It's an interesting question this one. I think John Redwood is dead right re council house sales. It was a masterstroke of a policy, probably the most successful transfer of wealth ever effected, which had political ramifications that changed the landscape for ever. Nothing like it.

Health cover free at the point of use has to be as important, however much we dislike the rationing system we've ended up with. It's not publicly funded health I dislike, it's the rationing (you can have *this* drug, but not *this* one, you can be treated in *this* hospital or you can b*gger off etc).

Do Civil Partnerships count as public policy? I would obviously vote for these as a Good Thing! Hardly anyone affected, in numerical terms, but those who are have had their happiness and psychological integration improved immeasurably.

Worst public policies. I would vote for, well, I don't know what to call it, but the sort of creeping privatisation of the public space. The loss of bus conductors, the loss of park keepers, the loss of beat officers (and their replacement with security guards), the cameras that follow us everywhere and which are inspected by God knows whom, the ever-enlarging DNA database. All those things, each of which looks small and insignificant, but when added up have destroyed both the safety and privacy we used to take for granted in our public spaces.

[Passing Leftie]

"Passing" Leftie should rename him/herself: "Resident" Leftie (and a good thing too!).

Thank you. The left only blog well when they are in opposition. This is the nearest thing to being an opposition I can find!