'Levering' up
Sir: Having whole-heartedly applauded your doughty appeal, in face of the sinking pound, that 'Next time we will not—we cannot—be rescued by loyal and kindly friends: if we are to be saved we must do the job ourselves . . .' (29 May), one naturally held one's breath to find Nicholas Davenport, a few pages later, attempting to' "Lever" up' the pound with the aid of another massive ('say, $5000 million') loan from the IMF. Could, one felt tempted to ask, the profligacy you had rightly castigated earlier go further?
'But,' Mr Davenport happily went on to add, 'this time it will have strings attached.' So, it seems, all may yet be well in the end— except for the nagging doubt that, if such strings are really necessary, and the country cannot be relied on to pull itself up by its own bootstraps, we and others might have done better not to have cut them, by gaily embracing the floating way of life, in the first place.
However (if the mixed metaphors may be forgiven), it is no use crying over spilt milk. We must now, after the pound has sunk by the best part of 40 per cent since it was first floated, make the best of a bad job, and we must, as you have properly insisted, do so by ourselves—with or without a 'kindly' helping hand from the IMF or others. Even then, will we ever learn to paddle our own canoe successfully ?
W. Grey 12 Arden Road, Finchley, London N3
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