ABSTRACT
Budgetary policy was a mat ter for the Treasury th roughou t : bu t by the same token it was not a mat ter for the Lord President. Morr ison migh t be responsible for economic planning bu t finance lay in a separate domain over which he had no jurisdict ion. It was not for Morr ison to decide h o w financial ins t ruments of policy should be used even if, as became increasingly evident, it was these ins t ruments and not physical controls that were to prove the more enduring regulators of economic activity. At the ministerial level, the division of responsibility led to error and confusion in the framing of policy and at the official level weakened the influence of the Economic Section, to which Whi teha l l in war t ime had been accustomed to look for guidance. T h e Section remained in the Cabinet Office, rather like a stranded whale , be tween the shallow waters of the Lord President 's Depar tmen t and the dry land of the Treasury.
