General post, hardship post
IT WOULD be easier for this Chancellor to send other ministers to meetings if he knew who they were going to be. He must expect, though, that after the reshuffle he will have to house-train a new Financial Secretary and a new Chief Secretary. Stephen Dorrell is a general tip for promo- tion as the acceptable face of something, leaving his file on the taxes on savings behind him. Michael Portillo might be hap- pier as an unacceptable face. His ill-wishers in Whitehall (there are some) would like to see him at Agriculture. A spending depart- ment, a ministry of subsidy and patronage, as far away from the market economy as you can get, with the shots called from Brussels — just up Michael's street, they say. The Treasury would then need a proficient axe- man. The choice does not seem to be wide.
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