Shutting up shop
WHEN I came to the City, it was considered bad form to talk shop over lunch. Cricket or grouse would be the order of the day until the port came round, and a nap would fol- low. Now Howard Davies and his army of regulators are striving to bring back the old days. Companies and analysts may meet, they now say, but must not exchange infor- mation, or if some fact slips out it must immediately be announced. There have been factitious complaints about briefings and leakages. Apparently some analysts went to see Imperial Chemical Industries and came out with long faces. I am not sur-. prised: these days, lunch at Millbank is dry. Icily regular, splendidly null, the City will fall into a state of invincible ignorance, its markets will be as perfect as the Lottery and its lunches will be rather tedious. I like shop.
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