Adam Smith Institute

The Adam Smith Institute envisages a two-stage sale of BR: the track and terminals privatized as a complete unit, and then the individual services which run on the track.

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How to develop the rural landscape whilst still protecting the environment? This was the question that was answered at an ASI Seminar in 1987, including speakers such as Brian Waters, Boisot Waters Cohen Partnership, Professor Alan Evans of The University of Reading and John Ardill of The Guardian, amongst others. The report sets out regulatory ideas that would allow for development on the green belt, and an easing of the planning laws to allow new building to take place.

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Douglas Mason puts the case for reviewing public financing of libraries.

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Way back in 1986 the Adam Smith Institute called for the reform and liberalisation of the archaic drinking and licensing laws of England and Wales. This study by the ASI compared the difference between Scotland and England and Wales after the laws had been changed North of the border. It found that even though alcohol was more readily available there, there was a reduction in the negative aspects of drink such as disorderly behaviour and health. Fifteen years on a government have finally seen sense and decided to relax the laws that govern drinking. The evidence of the past points towards a much safer and healthier environment.

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This report of a conference organised by the ASI in 1986 looks at the merits of reducing taxes. Chaired by Andrew Neil and a list of speakers which included James Gwartney, Lawrence Lindsey, George Gilder and Tom Bethell. At a time when much economic debate was and still is devoted to the relative merits of tax cuts or increased spending, the Adam Smith Institute felt that some consideration should be given to the effectiveness of tax cuts, particularly at the upper levels, in achieving greater revenues. There is now an established and documented history of the effect which tax cuts can have in increasing both the revenue yielded, and the proportion of it which is paid by upper income earners.

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What now appears to be a seminal publication on the road to welfare reform. Ralph Howell examines the welfare system of the mid 1980s, what the Beveridge Report didn't utilise and how the two could be combined to create an incentivized work force and a simplified benefits system. This publication foreshadows many of the summer 2008 announcements.

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An indepth look at the options available for the process of privatizing Britain's airports. Taking into considersation the present thinking (of the mid 1980s) surrounding privitization Dr Barrett outlines how it could be applied to airports and the benefits that it would bring. He also outlines how it could be improved with a variety of differing policy ideas.

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... to the economic and political thought of our time. This book, written by Dr Eamonn Butler, gives an introduction to the great Austrian economist and political philosopher Friedrich A. Hayek. The book covers the themes of Hayek's work, which consists more than 25 books and numerous articles. The topics include Hayek's understanding of the market process; his critique of socialism and the meaningless term of social justice, and Hayek's suggestions for the constitution of the liberal state.

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Michael Forsyth provides the solutions for the abject failure of public services in the late 1970s and early 1980s: "Local authorities seeking to make cuts in expenditure and increase benefits to ratepayers must now undertake extensive privatization of their services. The best method is just to do it, to put out services for private contract. The arguments of theory against the success of such action melt away in the practical results gained wherever it is done. The British people have come to expect that public services will become lower in quality and' more expensive to provide. This need not be so. Privatization has its part to play, therefore, not only in re–servicing Britain, but in helping to restore the country's faith in itself."

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