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“First in opposition and later in Whitehall, there were cultural barriers to cross. Advisers from the business world were almost unheard of in Whitehall before the Thatcher years Government was confined to career politicians and their career civil servants, with a small sprinkling of journalists and academics on secondment. These four groups appeared to be the only ones entitled to enter the political playground. Their received wisdom was, and probably still is, that businessmen could never succeed in this unfamiliar environment. They tended to overlook the fact that politicians, civil servants and non-business advisers had not been particularly effective either, and that few business people had ever been allowed to take part. I shared Samuel Brittan's scepticism about 'businessmen's economics'. But I did believe that we could learn, and then perhaps offer better thinking than would otherwise be available. - page XIV” — John Hoskyns