A Short History of Enterprise Zones

I knew the idea was brilliant from the moment 1 first encountered it. It was at a London conference organized by the Adam Smith Institute just one year before the demise of Britain’s Labor government and the dawn of the Thatcher era. Sir Keith Joseph, guru-in-chief of the Thatcher forces, was being pressed for a commitment that the next government would indeed be a radical one.

“Would you,” demanded an enthusiastic young Scot, “agree to a final test between freedom and planning?” The delegates rocked with laughter as the questioner outlined a proposal to place one island—the Isle of Wight, perhaps— under socialist planning and controls, and dedicate another to freedom and market forces. At Sir Keith’s reply—“Is the press present?” he began—the laughter froze. Then, into an enraptured silence, he revealed that there were plans to designate areas of Britain in which the Queen’s writ would not run. Furthermore, instead of on offshore islands, these would be set amid the worst blight of inner-city decay, in areas which a half-century of planning and subsidy had failed to improve.

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Madsen Pirie

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I knew the idea was brilliant from the moment 1 first encountered it. It was at a London conference organized by the Adam Smith Institute just one year before the demise of Britain’s Labor government and the dawn of the Thatcher era. Sir Keith Joseph, guru-in-chief of the Thatcher forces, was being pressed for a commitment that the next government would indeed be a radical one.

“Would you,” demanded an enthusiastic young Scot, “agree to a final test between freedom and planning?” The delegates rocked with laughter as the questioner outlined a proposal to place one island—the Isle of Wight, perhaps— under socialist planning and controls, and dedicate another to freedom and market forces. At Sir Keith’s reply—“Is the press present?” he began—the laughter froze. Then, into an enraptured silence, he revealed that there were plans to designate areas of Britain in which the Queen’s writ would not run. Furthermore, instead of on offshore islands, these would be set amid the worst blight of inner-city decay, in areas which a half-century of planning and subsidy had failed to improve.