Stephen Dubner

It seemed as if Thatcher was giving a great bear hug to Adam Smith and, by association, to the Adam Smith Institute.

I'm sure many people listening to you will say, oh, yeah, that was a turning point that was important for an economic reform.

And there are many others listening to you will say, oh, that was the darkest day ever when privatization began.

So to those in the latter group who feel that this was a move in the wrong direction, a move that we are seeing continuing to grow now to the point where many people feel, you know,

that labor is continuing to get squeezed and squeezed and squeezed.

How do you defend or support that?

The NHS, however, the National Health Service, is not private, is it?

So you've got another new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, not nearly as Thatcherite as his very short-lived predecessor.

But if you had maybe a couple hours today with the new prime minister to deliver the economic gospel according to Adam Smith, what would you want to emphasize as actually doable in this political and economic moment?

I asked Butler if he wanted to take a walk over to No.

10 Downing to see if we could talk our way in and present his Adam Smith-inspired advice.

Butler was game.

It was a lovely walk through the old Westminster streets, some flint and brick architecture, some odes to Britain's inventive past.

We arrive at 10 Downing Street.

There is a throng out front, some of them protesting against the state of the British economy.

I don't think any of it does any good.

I mean, I've always said if you have to go onto the streets, you've lost the arguments.

Butler and I squeeze past the throng and we walk down a barricaded path up to the armed guard in front of number 10.

OK, so there would be no drop in visit with the prime minister.

We pass the protesters again on our way out.