Finders keepers
BEFORE there was Friedman there was Keynes, and after Keynes came a flock of disciples who took their prophet's name in vain. They believed he had taught them that markets were deficient and that the state ought to make that deficiency good. Markets were partisan and short-sighted and only the state could see the whole pic- ture. From there it was only a step to assuming that the state would and should provide. Ambiguities of language helped the argument along: who could be expected to serve the public better than a public ser- vant? Well, perhaps the public — or rather, each one of millions of individuals, making innumerable choices every day — could decide that for itself. In that sense, markets are more democratic than any elected gov- ernment could ever be. I should like to he sure that Tony Blair, with his talk of a Third Way, has taken that on board. He should consult Vaclav Klaus, until lately his opposite number in Prague: 'The Third Way', so I once heard him say, 'is the fast way to the Third World.' As for Gordon Brown, he proclaimed in his budget speech that as Chancellor he was the guardian of the people's money. For 'guardian' read `keeper'. The greatest of all chancellors, Gladstone, knew better. Wealth, he said, should be allowed to fructify in the pockets of the people.
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