Letter: UK needs Reaganomics, not reheated statism

To describe the prevailing British economic policy ethos as “muddling along” is unduly flattering (“Britain’s muddle-along economic model”, FT View, June 4).

Nevertheless, the FT’s favoured approach would be no better. To adopt and adapt Ronald Reagan’s words of wisdom — “I’m from the government, and I have a growth strategy” — should terrify anyone who appreciates personal and commercial freedoms, and who understands their necessity for advancing prosperity.

When the FT speaks of Britain deciding what it wants to be good at, it means the state; but Britain and the state are not one and the same.

There is no single entity that can decide commercial advantage and conjure wealth creation. If governments were best placed to steer economic activity, the USSR would still be in business, and China would have become more prosperous by declining to introduce market-based reforms.

Frankly, Britain needs a growth strategy about as much as it needs another pandemic. There are few western economic problems that could not be ameliorated by means of smaller, cheaper and weaker government.

Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and their fellow travellers understood that perfectly well. The classic policy prescriptions of their era would be a far better guide for the British political class than any amount of reheated statism.

Deri Hughes
London E15, UK