This 1996 edition on Britain's economic status includes an assessment of the impact of the policies of successive Conservative governments to bring British public expenditure under control. It also provides an explanation of the decline of the British economy.

The original book provided a new explanation of the decline of the British economy which showed how a growing shift of Britain's resources from the production of goods and services which can be marketed at home and overseas to the provision of unmarketed public services simultaneously:- reduced the rate of growth and weakened the balance of payments- reduced investment and the economy's ability to provide productive jobs- fuelled the accelerating inflation and obstructive trade union behaviour from which Britain suffered.

Foreword
Robert Skidelsky - Preface to the First Edition - Preface to the Second Edition - Introduction: Bacon and Eltis after Twenty Years - Where Britain Went Wrong - The Lost Opportunities - Alternative Solutions - The Fundamental Problem - First Steps Towards a Solution - The Problem in Canada and the USA - The Underlying Economic Theory: the Implications for Inflation, Employment and Growth of a Fall in the Share of Output that is Marketed - The Statistical Background and the Derivation of the Charts - Index