As every student knows, the economic reforms of the fourth Labour government after 1984 reduced the size of the state. One of the elements of the government’s programme of economic liberalisation was to exit from state trading activities by first corporatising and then privatising the activity. The trading activities in question ranged from telecommunications and banks to hotels, a printing business and a shipping line. In 1984 government spending was about 40% of GDP, and the government employed 31% of the workforce.