Why Britain’s Treasury must change its ways
The problems with the most powerful department in Whitehall
On September 28th 1976 Denis Healey was at Heathrow airport waiting to fly to a meeting of the IMF when news reached him that the pound was tumbling. The chancellor rushed back to Whitehall to announce that he would ask the fund for a £1.9bn ($3.9bn) loan, around 5% of the government’s budget. Britain is bust, was the blunt verdict of The Economist. The Treasury was blamed for the loss of fiscal credibility that might have reassured the markets.
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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Treasury island”
From the November 18th 2023 edition
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