Douglas Mason, who has died aged 63 after a long battle with a cerebral tumour, was one of the engineers of the Thatcher revolution, providing intellectual backing to the 1980s Conservative administrations, including the ill-fated community charge. He came to be known as the "father of the poll tax".
He was born in the Scottish town of Dunfermline, the son of an accountant and schoolteacher. He attended Bradford grammar school in England when his father moved there, but moved back to Scotland to read geology at the University of St Andrews.
His affection for St Andrews remained throughout his life, and he corresponded with its students even in the final year of his life. He authored a series of publications about the university, most notably co-editing a compendium of St Andrews's student poetry and prose, City In The Mist (1985).
Although he played a key role in policy research, he belied the image of the modern, sharp-suited think-tanker, preferring instead a lifestyle and an appearance more akin to that of a university lecturer. He was usually to be seen in woollen jumpers.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he was one of the libertarian students at St Andrews who helped move the Conservative party away from the postwar consensus of state intervention. Under his control, the St Andrews University Conservatives became a powerful group, dominating conferences of the Federation of Conservative Students (FCS), and he used its influence to lobby the party nationally for more market-based policies.
After university, he set up home in Glenrothes, in Fife, rather than heading for London like many of his contemporaries. His first elected post was as a Conservative member on Fife county council, from 1967 to 1970. He served as a councillor on the Kirkcaldy district council from 1974 to 1988, on the Scottish Housing Advisory Council for the same period, and on the New Towns Development Corporation (1985-86). He was organising secretary (1969-77) of his local Conservative association, and stood unsuccessfully in the 1983 general election as Conservative candidate for Central Fife.
It was his work with the Adam Smith Institute, however, that brought him to national prominence. Friends of his from St Andrews had founded the institute in 1977, and he became one of its regular authors. He worked on the institute's 1983 Omega project, which provided many of the policy ideas adopted by the Thatcher-led governments. These included his call in the local government section for a per capita charge to finance local services, a proposal he amplified in other publications.
His ideas were taken up by a Conservative government desperate to replace a rating system widely seen as antiquated and unfair. His own proposal argued for a 10-year introductory period, and curbs on local government spending while it was phased in, but he supported the new tax, even in its altered form.
Despite the widespread obloquy heaped upon it, and even during the poll tax riots, he was unrepentant, believing the tax to be fairer than the old rates system. He was deeply sceptical about the council tax which replaced it, believing that it would not be long before that too would be scrapped.
Despite his influence with the Conservative government, which included research work for two ministers, Michael Forsyth and Allan Stewart, his political philosophy was never conservative in a traditional sense. It appealed to the free-market ideals of the then prime minister, but was combined with a libertarian streak which sat ill with Conservative social philosophy.
His report Expounding The Arts (1987) argued for the complete removal of arts subsidies. Time To Call Time (1986) argued that restrictions on drinking lead to negative social consequences. He argued similarly in Ex Libris (1986) that public libraries should charge for popular entertainment reading. This libertarian outlook made him a tireless and skilled opponent of regulation. His Licensed To Live (1988) was issued by the incoming minister Neil Hamilton to all members of the deregulation task force.
In addition to his work as a parliamentary researcher, Mason ran a small but successful business in antiquarian books. His main hobby was science fiction and his house was lined with sci-fi books and rare magazines.
Mason enjoyed jazz and 1950s rock'n'roll and had a mischievous sense of humour. At St Andrews, he helped found the Three Bears Club, a student society dedicated to mischievous fun. The humour remained with him, and helped him through the rough and tumble world of the Thatcher revolution.
Although often engaged in controversial policies, and representing them in public debate and on radio and television, he displayed a courtesy, charm and good humour that never failed to win him friends, even among his adversaries.
He is survived by his mother, a sister and a brother.
· Douglas Calder Mason, policymaker, writer and antiquarian bookseller, born September 30 1941; died December 13 2004