The Myth of Mr Butskell

This title was first published in 2003:It is often assumed that a general consensus existed between the post-war Labour and Conservative governments in matters of economic policy. Indeed, by 1954, The Economist was able to satirise the situation with the invention of 'Mr Butskell', a fictitious political figure created by an amalgam of the names of Hugh Gaitskell and R A Butler. For decades afterwards the character of Mr Butskell came to personify the idea of a consensus over economic policy that was only broken with the election of the Thatcher government in 1979. The longevity of the Butskell figure suggests that the post-war consensus was a given fact, but on what basis are these assumptions made? The purpose of this work is to reassess the historical basis of Mr Butskell by examining the conduct of economic policy from the moment Hugh Gaitskell joined the Treasury in 1950 as Stafford Cripp's deputy, to Rab Butler's departure in December 1955.