Wage Politics in Britain: The Rise and Fall of Incomes Policies since 1945

One of the most controversial and problematic aspects of post-war British politics concerned the various attempts by governments to secure wage restraint by the trade unions. Until 1979, successive governments entered Office seeking to reassure the trade unions that they would not interfere with free collective bargaining, only to revert to incomes policies when faced with higher inflation or unemployment. These incomes policies assumed various guises and formulas, and entailed various methods o…