This is the fourth time in just over a century that the Treasury faces the challenge of 'unfreezing' the economy by rolling back emergency controls and subsidies. I hope it's planning to learn the lessons of 1918-21, 1945-55, and the mid-1970s
The first of these episodes was famously (and probably rightly) skewered by R.H. Tawney in his essay on 'The Abolition of Economic Controls, 1918-21', which argued that the Lloyd George coalition had pushed decontrol too far and too fast: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2590512 
Decontrol after WWII was much slower and more cautious, reflecting Labour/trade union power and greater confidence in planning. Even after rationing ended in 1955, agricultural subsidies and wartime rent controls persisted (and the 1957 Rent Act turned into a fiasco)
But the episode I'd like to know more about is the Labour government's revival of price and rent controls in 1974-5, which has been overshadowed by debates over tax, social security, and industrial relations. Of course, these were all closely interconnected
In all three cases, debates over the idea of planning were profoundly shaped by the messy reality of crisis measures, and became sharply politicized - but in different ways. Understanding the past may help us get a handle on how the Covid interventions are likely to play out
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