Wasted opportunities? the 1950s rearmament programme and the failure of British economic policy

Abstract

The aim of this article is not to assess the impact of the defence programme, but to present the discussions on it and on the general economic situation. My focus here is not so much the reasons for the decline in the British economy but the discussions among officials, primarily at the Central Economic Planning Staff (CEPS) and the Economic Section (ES). It was the CEPS headed by Edwin Plowden, and the ES under Robert Hall, which played major roles in planning and implementing the defence programme, participating in virtually all the official committees concerning it.