Labour Party becoming 'Too Nervous', says Amartya Sen

Kolkata, Feb 8 (IANS) Britain's Labour Party has become "too nervous" in its approach, Nobel laureate and Harvard University professor Amartya Sen said here Sunday.

"They have to be more radical... now that's a mistake of theirs," Sen said at an event at the International Kolkata Book Fair.

Recently, the Labour Party has been losing its hold with private business houses in the country.

Sen, a winner of the Adam Smith Prize in 1954 and who moved to London 17 years later, was participating in an interaction "On Encountering UK".

He is presently a Harvard University professor in the philosophy and economics department and a distinguished fellow in Souls College in Oxford.

Britain's economy has recovered more quickly than expected and was 2.7 percent above its pre-crisis peak by the middle of this year.

Unemployment has dipped to below two million to an eight-year low and inflation fell to 1.2 percent, but productivity is flat-lining and wage growth, currently at 0.7 percent, has been lagging behind the rise in the cost of living for six years.

Interestingly, 45 years before he was appointed Master of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1998, Sen's application for higher studies in the hallowed institution was initially rejected.

"I had earlier (1953) applied to Trinity College Cambridge and they had promptly rejected my application," he said.

However, on account of a last moment cancellation of application from one of the students, Sen received a cable asking him to join.