Spruce in black coat and striped trousers, Chancellor of the Exchequer Harold Macmillan was the very model of a Tory Cabinet member and Edwardian gentleman as he anxiously rose in the House of Commons to present his first budget.
First, Macmillan rehearsed the melancholy facts beneath Britain's hectic prosperitythe rising prices at home, the declining exports abroad, the dwindling gold and dollar reserves as imports soared. "The economy is still running at a very high level,'' he said, but "there is really no future in importing extra materials that we cannot afford,...
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