Seven get the Itch
BAD news — Chancellor's Itch is conta- gious. That is the finding of research teams in the City and Suburban laboratories, where this blight was first identified. Stu- dies of successive Chancellors, going back to Lord Barber and beyond, showed that they came to the Treasury full of the joys of office. They knew, or thought they did, just how to put the economy right, and nothing would distract them — foreign travel least of all. Then things would start to go wrong, and the itch would set in. They would yearn for a respite from the awful figures piling up in their desks, from hostile questions in the Commons and snide comments in the City pages. They would itch to be abroad, among their peers, to be recognised as world financial statesmen. In its terminal stage, the Itch made them want to be chairman of the International Monetary Fund's Interim Committee. Norman Lamont has just spent a wet Sunday to small purpose, chairing the Group of Seven finance minis- ters — in London. Why do they bother to come? Because (our researchers conclude) they too have the Itch. This is obviously a good time for Ryutaro Hashimoto to be thousands of miles from his desk in Japan. Nicholas Brady must like meeting people who can remember that he is Secretary of the US Treasury. Pierre Beregovoy must be glad to get away from Edith Cresson. So they fly to each others' side. The Group of Seven has now spawned an international bureaucracy of its own, with an interest in keeping its meetings going. I propose an international conference somewhere nice, to study the Itch epidemic and make recommendations. More research is needed, and more air-tickets.
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