Fly on the Wall during the Thatcher Revolution

Abstract

The Monetary Bulletin first came to the attention of a senior politician in the early 1970s when the Conservatives were in power. I had been aware that Charles Goodhart was making a précis of them for the Governor of the Bank but not that they were being passed on to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.¹ I was very surprised to learn a year or so later from Anthony Barber (now Lord Barber) that he had even seen some of the drafts. As explained in the previous chapter the Bank had been kept closely in touch whilst analysis was being developed, and this included sending Charles an early draft. I was perturbed to learn that some of drafts had found their way to the Chancellor, as the final version often bore little resemblance to the first draft. (Later on I unintentionally got my own back on Charles, as described below.)