13 DECEMBER 1986, Page 31

Augustus in Brussels

THOSE who would think it a seasonal gesture not to tax the Christmas message should say so on a card to Lord Cockfield, in Brussels. As European Commissioner for Internal Markets, he heads Britain's push for free trade in services, and certain- ly we are doing better than we would if Buggins's turn had given the job to a Greek. In Lord Cockfield's varied career (managing director of Boots, Secretary of State for Trade), the formative years were those he spent in the Inland Revenue, and they have left him with the taxman's enthusiasm for imposing the same rules on everyone. There is not much economic point, by now, in the continuing standar- disation of Europe's taxes — and no votes at all — but it is dear to Lord Cockfield. That is what the book trade, now lobbying to avoid yAT (and save Nigel Lawson from being the first Chancellor to put a tax on the Gospels) is up against. I suppose Lord Cockfield would reply that there would have been no Christmas message without a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.