GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
Latest editorial
The mill stone around contemporary Britain’s neck
A wealth of information is let down by the final conclusions, writes WILL PODMORE
DOGMATIC MONOLITH: The Treasury building in London
[James Stringer/CC]
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
HENRY BELL is fascinated by the underlying curiosities and contradictions of one of the great poets of the Mediterranean
DAVID RENTON recommends a books that explores the ways in which disabled people are made to feel both of and not part of this world
Bankruptcy, bubbles and bailouts: The inside history of the Treasury since 1976
by Aeron Davis
Manchester University Press £16.99
THIS is a splendid survey of a key department of state. The Treasury dominates the state machine.
What is its purpose? The record shows that it consistently opposes our national industries, regional development, central planning, and much-needed infrastructure projects.
By contrast it always gives foreign companies incentives to move to Britain — regional development aid, free enterprise zones, free ports. It backs international finance against national industry.
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