Council of default
PUT not your trust in elected princes. That is the lesson of the Hammersmith and Fulham Council's failure in its freely accepted obligations in the money mar- kets. The court of first instance excused the council from payment, just as a sequence of courts, with the most explicit repugn- ance, excused the International Tin Coun- cil. That international agency, called into being by two dozen governments including our own, has now settled with its creditors at 40 pence in the pound. As for Hammer- smith's default, the trouble has only started, and there is no telling how far the shock-waves will spread. The next publicly elected person who sounds off about com- mercial morality should be reminded of these councils' conduct, and reminded again if he sets up his stall to regulate markets. I now propose that public bodies should be monitored in their commercial dealings by a newly formed panel of usurers, share-pushers and insider traders. Say what you like about such people, at least they don't welsh.
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