After the conservative election victories, first in Britain and then in the United States, it was not only the party-politician enemies of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan who withdrew, temporarily, to lick their wounds and regroup. So did the intellectual opponents of conservatism, the liberals who, having dominated the scene for so long, were incredulous and resentful over what had happened. Now they have re-emerged in full voice.
Their opportunity would have come even if Thatcherite and Reaganite economics had proved more plainly successful than appearances so far suggest. Inflation cannot be checked without a transitional increase of unemployment. The burden of over-government cannot be reduced without depriving quite a lot of people of expected benefits.
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