Sir John Cowperthwaite and the wisdom of positive non-intervention – Spectator Blogs

In a recent piece Stephanie Flanders, the BBC’s economics editor, pondered how the UK economy could be adding jobs while, according to the figures, shrinking by 0.7% during the second quarter of this year. As she put it, this is a conundrum that “Britain’s finest economic brains simply cannot explain”. Well, I can’t explain it either.

But, perhaps because I’m not any kind of economic brain, I wonder if all this measuring and collecting of information now does as much harm as good. In one sense, of course, it seems obviously good that government collect data so it knows what’s going on. But that comes at a price: it encourages governments to tinker and interfere even more than they might already be predisposed to tinker and interfere.

That’s the subject of my latest Think Scotland column in which I raise a cheery glass to the memory of Sir John Cowperthwaite – the modest Merchistonian at least partly responsible for fostering the conditions for Hong Kong’s spectacular success –  and wonder if we might learn something useful from him today.