MR MADSEN PIRIE AND NEW LABOUR

That this House notes with interest that Madsen Pirie, the architect of the poll tax, credits the New Labour government with adopting the agenda of the right-wing Adam Smith Institute on a regular basis; further notes that the Adam Smith Institute is a sounding board for Thatcherite policy ideas; notes the article in the Dundee Courier of 1st July which quotes Mr Pirie as saying that 'Many Ministers in this Government are very responsive to our ideas and we are finding New Labour initiatives that started in the Adam Smith Institute coming forward at the rate of about one a week.'; further notes Mr Pirie's comments that 'We advocated to the previous Conservative government privatising Air Traffic Control, the Tote and the Royal Mint, and this Chancellor is actually going to do it.'; and expresses concern that the New Labour leadership displays increasing responsiveness to ideas from the far right of the political spectrum.