CITY AND SUBURBAN
A Chancellor who speaks up for flat hats if they aren't working, it's hurting
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
It was bound to happen. Norman Lam- ont's praiseworthy reform has shifted the Budget out of Cheltenham week and set- tled it on 30 November, when racing is scheduled for Fontwell — a sacrifice I am prepared to make. As a side-effect, though, he has shunted the Chancellor's annual City speech to the bankers and merchants, so that it is timed for the middle of June. From now on it will mess up Ascot week. Kenneth Clarke inaugurated this tradition with a Guildhall speech that might have boomed around Bradford Town Hall in the great days of Alderman Foodbotham, per- petual chairman of the Tramways and Fine Arts Committee. I am no Londoner, he told his City audience — I come from the hard world of commmerce, the sole source of our prosperity. . . off with the white ties and tail-coats, on with the flat hats. Well, it makes a change. No one could say that the previous policy was good for commerce you could tell it was hurting because no one was working. Some commercial chieftains on princely salaries thought it would be nice not to have to tire their brains by wor- rying about the exchange rate. Of the vari- ous bad arguments for pegging the pound to the mark, that must have been the worst. The previous Chancellor gave the impres- sion that he was furtively trying to do it again. The new Chancellor seemed to be saying: forget it. Nothing could have been more pointed than his greeting to Eddie George, Governor-designate of the Bank of England: 'I first met Eddie on Black Wednesday, and he and I have no intention of facing a re-run of that event or anything like it.'
Not giving a hoot
SO MUCH for the notion that the central bank is a treeful of wise owls, and that all we need to do it to pay heed to their hoot- ing. Mr Lamont gave that idea another spin last week, telling us how he had pleaded in vain for the Bank of England's indepen- dence. I remember him dismissing the idea — not under consideration and, within the Exchange Rate Mechanism, not necessary — but I suppose he would now tell me, as he told the Commons last week, that minis- ters have to say such things. He and the Treasury felt comfortable with Mr George. Whether Mr George and Mr Clarke will find each other comfortable is another
question, already being asked. Mr Clarke has begun to cause discomfort in the Trea- sury, by discarding advisers, but if the Trea- sury's advice to Mr Lamont had been bet- ter, Mr Clarke would not now have the job. Equally, the translation of Rupert Pennant- Rea from the Economist to Mr George's right hand was no vote of confidence in the Bank's advice. .It is true that the Economist's advice would have been even more expensive — the editor's parting shot was to call the bottom of the market in gold with a Sell recommendation — but you can't have everything.
New model City
TOLD THAT Mr George was posing with a model, I thought I would drop in on them. The model — most engaging — is on view in Fleet Place, a new office complex which has popped up behind Ludgate Hill. Now it houses the City's new exhibition, `Capital for Business', with the model as its centrepiece. It shows the entire City, build- ing by building, some of them lit from with- in at a small extra charge to their landlords. This is the Corporation pushing the City as a place to do business and rent offices and pay rates — and why not? Guildhall used to keep its distance from its ratepayers, fear- ing that some financial scandal might spring up among them. Michael Cassidy, who chairs the policy committee, has turned things round. Nowadays Guildhall pays for studies of the City's competitiveness and promotes it as a home for Europe's puta- tive central bank — though I am still back- ing Venice, in the hope that it will sink. I wrote to him here on 8 May after the Bish- opsgate bomb: 'Dear Michael, here's my plan for the City — make it into a mem- bers' carpark.' No admission for vehicles (I said) without a resident's permit or a mem- ber's badge, issued and checked by the Cor- poration. He has come out with plans on these lines, and they can do nothing but good to a City still compact enough for its inhabitants to go around on foot. We may, though, have to postpone my plan for a mission to study the methods of traffic con- trol in Florence. There now seems to be some risk from falling masterpieces.
Twenty-minute wonder
WILLIAM CHARNOCK, the intrepid birdman who runs London City Airport, has written to The Spectator in support of its claim to be 20 minutes from the West End. I doubt it, he doesn't: 'All our staff, he says, 'are telling me... ' The question is easily resolved. I invite Mr Charnock to join me in the West End for a mid-morning glass of champagne at the Ritz. We shall then go out and take a taxi to his airport. If we get there in 20 minutes or less I will paY £10 a minute to a charity of his choice £10 for 20 minutes, £20 for 19 and so on. If we don't, he may like to pay £10 a minute to a charity of mine. Afterwards, I can make my own way back by public transport — brisk walk, North London Line, Central Line, Piccadilly Line. I like trains.
Options with kickers
I WOULD as soon go swimming with Robert Maxwell as plunge into the shark- infested waters of football finance. 'Totten- ham Hotspur', the judge said this week, 'Is a very special type of company, whose shareholders were not attracted by com- mercial considerations' — which, I suppose, was its attraction for Maxwell. None of this has deterred Andrew Hilton, who heads the Centre for the Study of Financial Innova- tion and seems to think that football needs more of it. He suggests that the clubs should invite their supporters to WY options on Cup Final tickets. The price of the options would vary with each club's chances, but, Dr Hilton says, even Burn- ley's supporters can hope. (What does he mean, `even'?) Options ought to mean gains for the fans at the expense of the tick- et touts, but the big winners would be the big clubs. The scheme could, on his reckon- ing, be worth an extra £625,000 a year to clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal — or, I suppose, Tottenham Hot- spur. I do hope someone will remember to slip Dr Hilton a bung.
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