“Something Will Turn Up” by David Smith of the Sunday Times. Video and competition to win a copy of his book.

How did the UK go from a manufacturing powerhouse in the 1950s, to economic destitution in the 1970s?  Is the history of post-war UK economics one of policy mistake after policy mistake?  And are Britain’s political and financial institutions better placed today to make good, long term decisions than they were in the past?  In the latest of our series of interviews with authors of new economic books (see here for past editions with Ed Conway, Diane Coyle and Richard Koo) I spoke to David Smith, economics editor of the Sunday Times, about “Something Will Turn Up – Britain’s Economy, Past, Present and Future”.  I loved this book, and it should be required reading for all students of the UK economy.  Here’s the video interview.

We are also running a competition to win one of ten copies of David’s book.  To win, send your answer to the question to bondvigilantes@mandg.co.uk by midday Tuesday 25 August.  This competition is now closed.

Question: in the 1980s, the Leaviss family bucked the trend for owning good quality foreign made cars by owning only British Leyland/Rover/Austin produced models.  At various times we had a Mini, two Metros, two Princesses, a big Rover with an automatic choke (remember chokes?) that never worked properly, and finally an MG badged Montego that we had to drive to Solihull to collect when it got hotwired at Rugby railway station and raced around West Midlands fields.  Here is a picture of another British built car that we owned during that period.  What (the hell) is it?