Centre For Policy Studies - Influence

Influence

Part of the politics series on
Thatcherism
Philosophy Conservatism
Libertarianism
Capitalism • Privatisation
Anti-communism • Anti-trade unionism
British unionism • Euroscepticism
Home ownership • Entrepreneurship
Monarchism • Traditionalism
People Margaret Thatcher
Nigel Lawson • Keith Joseph
Milton Friedman • Friedrich Hayek
Ralph Harris • Arthur Seldon
Norman Tebbit • Michael Portillo
John Redwood • Francis Maude
Augusto Pinochet • Ronald Reagan
Organisations Conservative Party
Bruges Group
Centre for Policy Studies
Conservative Way Forward
Institute of Economic Affairs
Mont Pelerin Society
No Turning Back
The Freedom Association
Related movements Economic rationalism (Australia)
Reaganomics (United States)
Rogernomics (New Zealand)
Libertarianism in the UK
Politics Portal

The CPS soon drove for a reassessment of Conservative economic policy during their period in opposition from 1974-1979. It was during this period that the CPS released its landmark reports, such as Stranded on the Middle Ground and Monetarism is Not Enough (1974 and 1976). Keith Joseph’s keynote speeches, published by the CPS, aimed to lead the way in changing the climate of opinion in Britain and set the intellectual foundations for the free market reforms of the 1980s. Monetarism is Not Enough was described by Margaret Thatcher as “one of the very few speeches which have fundamentally affected a political generation's way of thinking.".

The CPS did not consciously represent itself as a partisan institute; ‘blame’ for the collectivist post-war consensus was placed on both sides of the political parties for operating within the same ideological framework. The CPS continually advocated a centre-right approach and was hugely influential during Margaret Thatcher’s administration, operating as a key driving force towards her hallmark policies of privatisation, deregulation and monetarism

In her own words, its job was to 'expose the follies and self-defeating consequences of government intervention....'to think the unthinkable'. In 1982, it released Telecommunications in Britain, which urged the Government to embrace a fuller agenda of privatization in the telecoms sector. The paper recommended the privatization of British Telecom and the introduction of competition to the sector –both of which were implemented. Another key publication was The Performance of the Privatised Industries (1996) – a four volume statistical analysis which showed how the privatization agenda had benefitted the consumer by ushering in lower prices and higher quality service. It argued that the taxpayer had benefitted greatly from privatisation - not just from the initial windfall from receipts, but also from higher tax revenues than had ever been received from the same companies when they were in state ownership.

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