CITY AND SUBURBAN
Forward with the people, but don't call them that
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
Not wanted: a people's capitalism. The Prime Minister believes that the notion is admirable, but that the phrase will not do. Anything with the word People's in front of it has joined the category of expressions which mean the opposite of what they say: useful exchange of views, my word is my bond, people's democracy. Popular capi- talism (is that better?) remains an idea looking for a slogan, and for a shove. It has been an odd political achievement, or perhaps it corresponds to an odd streak in the national make-up, that personal own- ership has made tremendous strides pro- vided that the assets are not directly productive. House ownership, we see, is now so popular that the hapless Michael Meacher, trying to suggest that mortgage tax relief need not be sacrosanct, found himself hushed down by his own side of the House. What chance has the poor old Treasury, which quite agrees with him? What chance have I? Almost as popular as houses are pensions, as the Chancellor this year had to learn the hard way. It will be fascinating to watch Norman Fowler trying to avoid the same hazards as he tangles with state pensions — seeking (we may now hope) to take the state out of the life assurance business, offering (as politically he must) something more attractive in its stead. When and how, though, are we going to take personal ownership beyond the limits of our homes and our old age? John Moore, the Treasury minister with the privatisation brief, was talking last year of a share-owning democracy whose citizens would have the chance to stroll down their High Streets and buy shares. Not much sign of that since, and, odder, not much sound of it from Mr Moore and his fellow ministers. If they want action in the High Street, they ought to be talking to the retailers. They are in the personal finance business already, with their in- store credit cards. They are all of them drawing their lessons from America, where the world's biggest retailer, Sears, is also a major supplier of financial services. As for the Big Four banks, they do speak for a retail chain with 10,000 sites, and they are (or three of them are) in the securities business already. They politely stocked the Telecom prospectuses. At least one Wanted to do much more — and, on the right terms, would have had separate Telecom counters, trained staff to explain how it worked, and been open when the customers wanted. It might not have cost so much more than crossing all those
provincial brokers' palms with silver. That. wise banker, Deryk Vander Weyer of Barclays, once said to me: 'I wish we could find some way to start an Industry Society — like a building society: people would de- posit their money, but it would go into local business.'
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