Britain's Power Elites • The Real Adam Smith • The General Strike • Crime Rates [45min]

"Start the Week" sets the cultural agenda every Monday. Guests are drawn from the top movers and shakers in politics, history, science and the arts. This week award-winning journalist Andrew Marr is joined by Hywel Williams, James Buchan, Anne Perkins and Michael Howard MP. 1) The historian and former special adviser Hywel Williams is worried about the state of Britain today. A very British coup has taken place, he argues in his new book: the City of London has taken over and its inhabitants are the real governing class. Britain's Power Elites: The Rebirth of a Ruling Class is published by Constable & Robinson. 2) Adam Smith is a much fought over philosopher. Margaret Thatcher laid claim to his legacy. So has Gordon Brown. He also inspired Tom Paine, the French revolutionaries and Karl Marx. In his biography of Adam Smith, James Buchan argues that both Left and Right are wrong: Adam Smith was not the legendary founder of capitalism and his work does not bear any relation to the reformed socialism of Britain's New Labour. James Buchan talks about the real Adam Smith and describes the true legacy of the man who coined the term 'a nation of shopkeepers'. Adam Smith and the Pursuit of Perfect Liberty is published by Profile Books. 3) On 3 May 1926, 2 million workers downed tools and joined the only General Strike ever staged in Britain -- perhaps the most dramatic peacetime event in twentieth century Britain. Anne Perkins's book, A Very British Strike, published by Macmillan, looks at how and why it began, and what, if anything, it achieved. 4) During his four years as Home Secretary, Michael Howard MP managed to reduce recorded crime by 18%. When he left office, almost a million fewer crimes a year were being reported to the police than when he became Home Secretary four years previously. So how did he do it or was crime on a downward trend whatever he did? Michael Howard's film about his attempts to cut crime when he was Home Secretary will be shown on Tuesday night on Newsnight on BBC 2 at 1030.