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ARTICLE · 12 AUGUST 1998

A Changing Environment

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United KingdomMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Peter I. Altman
Peter I. Altman
A glance at reference books chronicling public life in Britain since the War reveals the extent to which Government Ministries adapt both their identity and their role to meet changing circumstances. Prime Minister Wilson, for example, conceived the Ministry of Technology when he came to power in 1964 as a vehicle for regenerating an inactive industrial economy. In the past five years, the Department of Education has enlarged its scope and transformed itself into the Department for Education and Employment to reflect the implied synergy between its two strands. Closer to the IT sector, the Postmaster General held Cabinet rank and statutory control over the nation's PTT.

'Technology' evolved over time into the Department of Trade and Industry along with the Board of Trade and the erstwhile Department of Energy: the Postmaster General is now a very junior ministerial appointment with a watching brief over the Royal Mail just so long as that remains under public control.

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