Labour’s Economics: The State We’re In

Books on economic affairs don’t sell well in Britain. I should know. In 1982 I presented an eight-part television series for the BBC entitled Whatever Happened to Britain? There was a book of the show, and every evening that the program was broadcast (the series was repeated three times in three years) the BBC urged viewers to go out and buy the book. Nearly five million people watched the program. Only about twenty-six thousand bought the book. Yet in one year, without the benefit of free television advertising, Will Hutton’s The State We’re In has sold a hundred thousand copies, and at this writing (January 1996) it is at the top of the paperback best-seller lists.

Why has Hutton’s book done so well? First, it’s a brilliant book (far better than mine), a remarkable synthesis of insights into contemporary British economics and politics written with stylish verve and not a little passion. Second, the book has caught the mood of the ...