British academic economists were as a whole broad supporters of government policy in the 1950s, during the greater part of which the Conservative Party was in power. Given that political life was configured around business and labor, the only established position from which the Conservative government's policy could be publicly criticized was already occupied by the Labour Party. Each party of course had its shadings, from right to left. But militant criticism of state activity from any other direction would automatically place the critic on the fringes of the existing political spectrum. It was difficult to reconcile such a stance with an academic reputation in the postwar world.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 417