ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on growth and unemployment, discusses what should be the general nature of a Labour economic policy. It discusses labour market policies for the 1980s—that is, employment and jobs—which come ‘at the crossroads between the problems of efficiency’ and of ‘obtaining a fair distribution of jobs and incomes’. The book considers the potential contribution that the much-canvassed idea of planning could make to the solution of contemporary British economic problems. It focuses particularly on a social policy adapted to an era when resources are likely to be relatively fixed and when there will be no big economic expansion. The book deals with the economics of energy in the 1980s. It also deals with problems of internal organisation and democracy as it applies to Labour itself.
