Challenge to Democracy by Ronald Mcintosh
Ronald McIntosh was director general of the National Economic Development Council ('Neddy') at a time of great turbulence for Britain, and was thereby in a unique position to observe events from the inside. He worked closely with Edward Heath, Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, and was in frequent touch with Cabinet ministers, members of the shadow Cabinet, bankers, and industrialists (public and private) and with the major trade union leaders of the day, who wielded real power in the 1970s. McIntosh kept a diary of this momentous period, providing fascinating insight into how Britain was run. It begins in 1973 with the deepening crisis linked to the sharp rise in oil prices, and provides a day-by-day account of the Heath government, facing a miners' strike, the three-day week and industrial unrest. The diary covers the two elections of 1974, both narrowly won by Harold Wilson, Heath's replacement by Margaret Thatcher as Conservative leader, Wilson's surprise resignation, and the near collapse of the British economy in 1976, under Callaghan and Chancellor Denis Healey, from which it was rescued by the IMF. This perceptive and authoritative book casts new light on the last years of pre-Thatcherite Britain, giving a vivid contemporary account of what a wide range of influential and powerful leaders felt and feared in a period of relentless economic decline and deep social malaise.
Ronald McIntosh was a Whitehall official of wide experience and independent mind, who held senior posts in the Cabinet Office and the Treasury, before being appointed Director General of the National Development Council and a member of NEDC in 1973. From 1978 to 1990 he pursued an active business career as chairman of an international engineering firm and director of a leading merchant bank, and later as chairman of the British Healthcare Consortium in post-Soviet Russia.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781842751572 |
| ISBN 10 | 1842751573 |
| Title | Challenge to Democracy |
| Author | Ronald Mcintosh |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Methuen Publishing Ltd |
| Year published | 2006-05-08 |
| Number of pages | 400 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |