Skinflint's City Diary

It is hard to convey the boyish sweetness and kindness of the life insurance companies to those in trouble. Some Ugandan Asians, whilst still in Uganda, took out life insurance policies with various British companies during the last few years. The premiums were paid in Ugandan shillings, then convertible into sterling. Now some of these unfortunates hounded out of their country have arrived in Britain and tried to surrender their policies to get what cash they can to make a fresh start. But here these famous British companies with their dedication to the small print have said, "Look at your policy, it can only be surrendered for Ugandan shillings, which are not convertible." Since these firms boast of being international in their operations I should not have thought it beyond their imagination to have anticipated the events in Uganda when preparing their sales pitch to the Indian small traders. Let us hope that the companies now consider currency re-insurance arrangements in those countries threatened by black African dictators.

Chataway computes

Poor nice fresh-faced athletic Chris Chataway, running around the country giving money away. Nobody in the Government seems to like him much and there are an awful lot of Tories who dislike intensely what he is doing. I heard one junior minister say outright that Chris hasn't the faintest idea about industrial policy and about helping lame ducks. Take computers. Obviously a long-term growth industry. Obviously Britain must take a part in it. Obviously American know-how, drive and salesmanship are essential. Obviously the threat posed by IBM to become a world monopoly must be resisted. Obviously the continental computer firms are in serious trouble. The answer is clear: Britain's International Computers Limited must combine with one of the American competitors of IBM — either Honeywell or Univac — with, if necessary, an American majority holding; the British Government should declare that the great bulk of its computer contracts would go to the new ICL-American combine; and, with its home market base secure, the new company should go flat out to capture the European market. This is precisely what ministers outside the Department of Trade and Industry are saying. They are also, of course, saying that nobody inside the DTI is much good at all, except, strangely, Peter Emery.

Japanese competition

There is something else that some of the brighter, younger ministers are saying, which has to do with Japanese competition. Motor cars are flooding in. Motorbikes have flooded in. So have radios, television sets and so forth. I hear that no less than eighty per cent of the pocket calculators used in that huge printing and publishing enterprise, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, are Jap. What these young ministers are saying about Jap competition is simple in the extreme: it is, in a word, Protection. The only way to stop the stuff coming in is to say "Right. You've imported your quota of 300 cars this year. You can't bring in any more until next year." Often as not, it does not matter much what young ministers say. But I have reason to believe that Mr Heath, back from Japan and very impressed by what he saw there, is saying something very similar himself.

Bi-lingual

Lord Longford attended a performance of Hair this week, which he said he prefers to the girly magazines. A clever heel-clicker about the Spectator offices, who is apparently worried to lose his favourite magazine, said " Erdachtes mag zu denken geben, Doch nur erlebter wird beleben."

Roughly translated, this apparently means: Imaginary things may supply food for thought, But only experience can enliven."

This eva-so-cleva bilingual fella looking at a photograph of the recondite beauty of Lord Longford sitting in the stalls at Hair muttered: " Gross Stirn Wenig gehirn."

This apparently means: "Large forehead, Small brain."

Poulson

The fact that some of Mr John Poulson, the architect's, important friends apparently had few scruples and many interests makes the remarkable tale being set out in the testimony at Wakefield Court utterly engrossing.

In December 1967 Mr Poulson apparently wrote to Mr Reginald Maudling head of a Poulson subsidiary International Technical and Construction Services about a new £2 million hospital in the Lebanon saying: " I met the gentleman who you were very impressed with, Deputy Sheik Khalil el Khoury son of an ex president who, from what I gather will be president next term or the term after. He is prepared to do anything for us but he wants paying, and ITCS can make the arrangements."

Mr Muir Hunter QC, appearing for the creditors went on with his interrogation to ask, "In plain English, what do the words 'He wants paying' mean?."

Mr Poulson replied: "I have no idea."

Whatever the result of this bankruptcy case I recall once hearing the official British Government and the Bank of England line on "commissions" to officials of overseas governments who were able to oil the wheels of the British export effort.

Dollars or Francs

A close acquaintance told me in the fifties, at a time when this country was going through one of its regular bouts of export starvation, that his company, possibly the largest engineering business south of the Thames, was negotiating a big order from the Middle East. A Sheikh, cousin of the King, friend of the foreign Prime Minister or some such notable asked the company negotiators for a straight £250,000 bribe, which they could add to the value of the order — worth if I remember the figure, about £11 million. This old established and highly reputable British public company formally told the Treasury and the Bank of England, who replied, just as formally, that this was quite in order, and that the appropriate amount of foreign exchange would be released when needed, in dollars or Swiss francs.

Barber briefs

The papers had great fun with what have clearly been Tony Barber's very nicely calculated indiscretions, or ' leaks ' or 'background briefings,' to selected reporters in Washington for the meeting of the International Monetary Fund. Paul Lewis of the Financial Times and Peter Jay of the Times reported in almost identical terms that a prices and incomes policy was soon to be imposed. Then the Evening Standard pointed out the similarity of the two pieces. This encouraged the next day's Daily Mirror's 'Inside Page' (reading inside the Evening Standard?) to repeat the story of the similar pieces, and asking rhetoricallY "Could they be conveying the (non-attributable) views of Barber himself?" The answer is, of course, Yes, they could, and were. But Inside Page instead rang up the Treasury, and got by way of reply "We have no comment to make on these statements but we can give you a non-attributable statement."

Incomes policy

The fact is that Tony Barber and the Treasury see eye to eye on the need for a compulsory incomes policy; whereas the Prime Minister is desperately avoiding such a step — which he has always claimed has never worked and cannot work -and in any case wanted to see if anything of a voluntary nature could be scraped and patched together with the TUC and the CBI, before grasping the nettle of compulsion. Hitherto, Tony Barber has kept very close to Ted Heath, although he had his way over the floating of the pound (after one of the longest and least decisive Cabinet meetings of recent months, which ended up with the Cabinet saying to the Chancellor, in effect, "do whatever you think best, if it must be done "). The floating experience has encouraged him to flex his muscles further — and immediately a Chancellor starts doing that — particularly one like Barber, who has the respect and obedience of his civil servants — he becomes a very powerful politician indeed.