In this timely and important collection of recent writings by a leading commentator, Sir Samuel Brittan expounds an individualist vision of liberalism which welcomes some of the New Labour policy initiatives, but rejects its communitarian rhetoric as well as its authoritarian echoes on the Right. This vision forms the context in which a number of current issues are discussed: the globalisation of the economy, the future of state-provided welfare, and the control of inflation among them. Sir Samuel does not limit himself to critical analysis of the past and the future: he sets out an agenda...

The rise and fall of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) parallels the promised but eventually unfulfilled modernization agenda of the 1964-6 Wilson government. The diary kept by Samuel Brittan (in contravention of civil service rules) for the fourteen months in which he served as an 'irregular' in the DEA provides a unique source for understanding the growth ambitions of the new government and why they quickly ran into the sands. Published here in full, with extensive notes, the diary sheds light on the Wilson government more broadly, giving insights into the 'great reappraisal' of...