ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some perspective on Labour's initiatives, by asking questions about what was actually achieved in terms of the central policy objective — the amelioration of productivity. The barriers to efficient production in Britain largely originated with the unions, and took the form of restrictive practices. Labour should have been doing something about this, rather than tinkering with agencies such as the BIM. Technical deficiency may have blighted execution and policy muddle blunted impact, but these factors alone are insufficient to explain the various disappointments in performance. Labour's greatest ally on the industrial modernisation question was, of course, the general council of the TUC. This body had accepted the need to increase productivity in an important document of 1946, ratified its view with Congress, and then done everything possible to aid official initiatives.
