Notebook
Now that Sir Harold Wilson has agreed to carry out an inquiry into the workings of the City of London, there is much speculation about who the other membei s of his committee will be. It is unlikely that Mr Callaghan would allow the list of members to read like a replay of Sir Harold's resignation honours: this would be more than the Labour Party could bear. But deprived of the companionship of his chums, Sir Harold may find it difficult to attract the participation of serious economists, bankers, stockbrokers, and financial journalists of the sort who have maintained for some years that our financial system needs a thorough examination.
To take a case in point : Lord Shawcross is an extremely wily old bird with a detailed knowledge of the City of London, who has made it his business to acquire the inside story of almost every major scandal or nearscandal which has affected the financial world in recent years. From a conservative viewpoint, he is one of the most formidable critics of the way things work now: obviously, if there is a case for the inquiry at all, Sir Harold's committee ought to draw upon his expertise. But there are probably few men in public life with whom Lord Shawcross would less like to do business than Sir Harold Wilson.
There were outraged cries of 'Order, order' when Denis Healey, in his Commons speech on Monday, referred to Roy Jenkins as `Mr Roy Jenkins'. No longer seeing him in the Cabinet room, the Chancellor must have forgotten that his former colleague is still an MP and until he resigns his seat should be referred to in the House as 'the Right Hon. Member for Stechford'.
As we struggle ineffectively to stave off financial ruin, it is interesting to look occasionally at how Italy is coping with very similar problems. It is striking how a weak minority government, which presides over a society notoriously less stable than our own, has been able to introduce measures much more painful than any that Mr Callaghan and Mr Healey appear to be contemplating. And, Mr Healey should note, there has been no rioting in the streets—not yet, anyway.
Mr Andreotti, the Italian Prime Minister, is to be congratulated for his toughness. By increasing the price of petrol to the equivalent of £1.65 a gallon and simultaneously raising motoring taxes, he has made car ownership prohibitively expensive to most people. This measure strikes directly at the main source of Italy's balance of payments problem—the vast cost of its oil imports— and may also contain the seeds of a social revolution. The Italian Government has now openly declared war on the motorcar— in a country where motoring is an addiction.
Among Mr Andreotti's other austerity measures, the decision to knock seven public holidays out of the calendar could have an important psychological effect in its stark recognition of the need for sacrifice in order to increase production. How has this weak government been able to take steps so unpalatable to the majority of Italians? Because it has the support of a patriotic opposition—the Italian Communist Party. Is it conceivable that a Conservative government would receive similar support for such measures here if the Labour Party were in opposition?
Northern Ireland provided a rather disturbing counterpoint to the Tory conference. Various official Unionist MPs attended an eve-of-conference soirée and it was afterwards reported in Ulster that Mr Whitelaw had confessed to some 'dreadful mistakes' on the part of the last Tory government, including the disbandment of the 'B' Specials and the prorogation of Stormont. Not surprisingly, Gerry Fitt was to be seen later in the week in earnest conversation with Airey Neave in the lobby of the Metropole. Readers of Mr Cecil King's diary will know that Mr Whitelaw is a generous and uninhibited talker, but on this occasion he denied having said what was attributed to him. Anyway private conversations should not be quoted. Ulster politicians are firmly convinced that British politicians are unreliable; in this case the sentiment was warmly reciprocated.
'editorial' DG, rather in the manner of Sir Hugh Greene. Sir Charles, in contrast, is primarily an administrator. At forty-eight, Mr Evans also seems to be the right age.
In the Israel Museum in Jerusalem there are a number of relics of an as yet unidentified and unnamed desert civilisation. They have, so far, puzzled all the scholars who have inspected them. All, that is, save Paul Johnson, former editor of the New Statesman. On being shown a piece of crescent-shaped pottery dotted with small, round holes, and told that grey heads had wagged over it for years Paul said: 'But it's simple. These are clearly olive trays for Stone Age cocktail parties.'
Michael Heseltine's rapid ascendancy in the Conservative hierarchy now seems assured. He was already in Mrs Thatcher's good books before his conference speech last week : today he stands even higher in her estimation. What is more, he is building an important personal base among the rank and file of the party. His somewhat theatrical appearance is undoubtedly an advantage.
Another asset, not to be overlooked, is unfailing courtesy and promptitude in corresponding with members of the public (not only his constituents) who write to him about this or that. When Lord Thorneycroft gives up the party chairmanship, Mr Heseltine is perhaps his likeliest successor.
A fine exhibition of paintings by Thelma Hulbert has just opened at the Marjorie Parr Gallery in the King's Road. Though the richly coloured still-lifes and landscapes, so full of light, space and a Proustian sense of memory and occupancy, have a definite character of their own, the identity of the artist will revive associations for many people with the Euston Road school of painting. The school in the Euston Road had a short life just before the 1939-45 war, when William Coldstream, Victor Pasmore and Claude Rogers taught the students who included Graham Bell, Colin Machines, Lawrence Gowing and Peter Lanyon. Thelma Hulbert combined her own painting with the role of Secretary for the school. The sober, analytic principles of the Euston Road painters gained a foothold for a time at the Slade, but Thelma Hulbert's paintings have explored colour more sensuously than the work of her old colleagues, and her present exhibition, cutting clean across the bows of fashion, does a lot to revive faith in the virtues of painting.
High praise for Mr Heath from his old adversary Sir Harold Wilson. In conversation with friends, Sir Harold has been expressing the greatest admiration for Mr Heath's speech to the Tory conference—the speech of reconciliation. He too appears to be developing a more 'national' approach to affairs as the economy continues to deteriorate. Thoughts of coalition ? Perhaps; Perhaps not. But the idea of Sir Harold and Mr Heath together in a coalition government is too frightful to contemplate.
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