Duty to Repeal

These modes of taxation, by stamp–duties and by duties upon registration, are of very modern invention. In the course of little more than a century, however, stamp–duties have, in Europe, become almost universal, and duties upon registration extremely common. There is no art which one government sooner learns of another, than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.

All taxes upon the transference of property of every kind, so far as they diminish the capital value of that property, tend to diminish the funds destined for the maintenance of productive labour. They are all more or less unthrifty taxes that increase the revenue of the sovereign, which seldom maintains any but unproductive labourers; at the expense of the capital of the people, which maintains none but productive.

So wrote Adam Smith over 300 years ago. Still the problem persists today, and even though Nicholas Gibb wrote this report into Stamp Duty two decades ago it is still pertinent today. Quite simply it is a call for the abolition of Stamp Duty.

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A Decade of Revolution: The Thatcher Years

The writers of this work examine many of the aspects in which a transformation has been achieved. The story which they collectively tell is one of a revolution: but not of a revolution complete, rather that of a revolution which is continuing. Many of them, while detailing the results already achieved, point to further progress which could be made. Thus, at the end of the first ten years of the Thatcher administration, the story they tell is one of achievement and success which continues, and for which the need continues.

You can read the full paper here.

The Burning Question

Written by Michael Simmonds for The Adam Smith Institute and published in 1989, The Burning Question discusses the future of the fire service in Britain. 

You can read it here.

A Social Charter For Ownership

This paper investigated ways to increase employee ownership contrary to the socialist method, through private capital ownership.

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Wiser Counsels - The Reform of Local Government

This paper proposes a number of radical solutions to making local governments closer to the people they serve.

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Shedding a Tier: The Reform of Local Government

This paper proposes a radical alternative to local government that will ensure they serve the needs of the people far more.

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Sunday, Sunday: The Issues in Sunday Trading

This paper provides a rigorous account of why Sunday Trading Laws must be fully deregulated.

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A Change of Government

The future of Britain's Civil Services has been at the forefront of recent political debate. The Efficiency Unit's report, 'Improving Management in Government: The Next Steps', has put forward an important series of changes to the way in which the central bureaucracy functions. The report represents the latest  in a series of initiatives since 1979 aimed at improving the efficiency of government. Such initiatives are so far estimated to have saved the British taxpayer a total of £1.3 billion, at its maximum only £325 million per year. This report argues that such savings, important as they are, pale into insignificance when compared to the £164.8 billion spent by government in 1986/87. There must be more fundamental change in the way that Britain is governed if public expenditure is to be more than tamed. The Efficiency Unit's report offers an exciting opportunity for such change. An Inter-Departmental review should be conducted of all responsibilities and services carried out by departments. Departments should be rationalized and made to reflect today's society rather than the dreams of the early 1970s. The range of advice to ministers should be broadened and the whole question of political appointees must be re-examined.  

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Mechanics of Privatization

Nowhere does there exist a greater concentration of expertise on privatization than in the United Kingdom. The privatization programme in the UK started before those of other countries, and has included government companies and services that are larger and more diverse than anywhere else. 

Indeed, British merchant banks, marketing agencies, policy analysts, and other institutions now have so much knowledge about how to make privatization work that their advice is one of UK's most thriving export industries! The whole world, it seems - whatever the prevailing political colour - wants to know how to reap the benefits of privatization.

It was to assemble the best of this expertise that in July 1987 the Adam Smith Institute sponsored the first London Conference on Privatization, from which most of the papers in the report derive. Over 100 finance ministers, businesspeople, and other delegates from all over the world came to learn for themselves something of the mechanics of privatization. 

Read the whole report here.

Privatization in Practice

Privatization is an integral part of a free market approach to the economy but the case for it does not rest on theory; certainly in Britain it rests on the practical evidence of the performance of the nationalized industries before 1979 and on the performance of the privatized companies since 1979.

Read the whole paper here.