In 1945, after the war had ended, David took a position, first as Lecturer and then immediately afterwards as Fellow in Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford.
He became part of a distinguished group of fellows, which included Kenneth Tite in politics and Thomas Dewar (“Harry”) Weldon in philosophy, who were to be joined by Frank Burchardt, who was, as noted, at the Institute of Statistics.
They taught in the interdisciplinary field of Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE), introduced in 1920 because of the belief that, at the undergraduate level, none of these fields should be studied without reference to the others. Thus, for example, theories of reducing unemployment could not be truly understood without reference to concepts of social justice. The ideas of the Utilitarians in philosophy influenced the development of consumer choice theory in economics. Also, as David was later to encounter, the politics behind the making of economic policy was influential in how eagerly the full employment goal was pursued by different members of the government. Students would study all three topics in their first year and could then reduce their topics to two for the last two years. The PPE degree at Oxford has become increasingly popular and the number of politicians, statesmen and journalists with PPE degrees from Oxford is remarkable.In 1949, in the Oxford University Congregation, David put forward a proposal to postpone all University salary increases (with a few exceptions) for two years until 1951. The reason for this action of admitted self-denial was that it would be a ‘noble and generous gesture' (Worswick quoted in Oxford Mail 1949: 2) to mirror the county's wage freeze in other sectors, that is, to support income's policy (see below, Section 8). The measure failed amid furious opposition, Sir Hugh Henderson stating that it ‘was most unreasonable— almost a bizarre proposal, which might do serious damage to the interests of the University... We are being asked to do something which is plainly intolerable from the stand-point of the primary interest in our lives—that of the University' (Henderson quoted in ibid.). This was an example of David's tendency to assume that other people would, of course, be as self-denying as him. It was perhaps a naive view, though he later more formally recognised that the clash between the public and the private interest was ubiquitous in making economic policy, especially the incomes policy. However, he was always disappointed when private interest dominated as much as it did under the government of Margaret Thatcher.
3.1