Why the ‘Barber boom’ that Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget recalls was destined for disaster

A reckless dash for growth is nothing new. Ted Heath's chancellor Anthony Barber tried one in 1971, but it didn't turn out well

The recklessness of chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's budget for growth" evokes memories of the disastrous outcome of the last great Conservative dash for growth": the so-called Barber boom" of 1971-73.

I say so-called because the wildly expansionist policy of those years was essentially the work of PM Edward Heath. His preferred chancellor, Iain Macleod, had died within a month of taking office in 1970, and Heath was thenceforth the driving force in economic policy.