The Conservative Party and the history of shopping in Britain since 1945

The Conservative Party has always proclaimed itself to be the party of the entrepreneur and the 'small businessperson', against the stifling embrace of 'red tape'and regulations, although we have been hearing much less of that since the ascendancy of Alexander ('F- business !') de Pfeffel. Let's look at the record in one sector.

When Edward Heath was President of the Board of Trade, during the short-lived premiership of Sir Alec Douglas Home (1963-4), he abolished retail price maintenance, which, it seems to be commonly agreed, encouraged the rise of supermarkets, who could beat their competitors on price. (Rather quaintly, an exception was made for bookshops, because of their contribution to the nation's cultural life. When rpm was abolished on the book trade in 1990, predictably dire consequences for bookshops and the publishing industry ensued). I do not deny the many conveniences of supermarkets for the 'consumer', but what did it do for many 'small businesspersons' (butchers, greengrocers etc.) except to put them out of business ? The relaxation of credit controls by the Heath government in 1972 could also be said to have encouraged supermarkets and larger stores, as they would be more likely to have facilities for handling transactions on credit cards. Similarly, the trend to locate shopping centres outside town centres from the 1970s onwards, encouraged by lax planning regukations, cowardly, short-termist (or corrupt) councils, and Thatcher's 'great car economy', similarly did them no favours. Now, when thanks to discriminatory taxation, independent businesses in the retail sector are becoming an endangered species, and several of the established chains have already succumbed to the chill winds of competition, where was the supposed championship of small businesses by Conservative governments in all this ? Of course, the bleak 'condition of the high street', the occasion of much ineffectual hand-wringing by politicians, is routinely presented as an economic 'act of God', just like austerity, Brexit and the pandemic. And like any 'act of God', we all have to grin and bear it.

The Conservative Party, whether in its patrician, 'One Nation', Thatcherite or contemporary 'populist' incarnations has always intensely desired that people buy stuff. The manner in which people consume, and whether the ways in which they consume bind their communities together or destroy them, are viewed as matters of much lesser importance.