SKINFLINT'S CITY DIARY
Lloyd's used to be the place to put your boy. The sort of chap who is "a good Mixer and gets on with people." It is true he had to ante up £15,000 if he was to be a Working name but it was often possible to Persuade a maiden aunt that she might as well let him use the capital that she would eventually be leaving in her will.
There were snags like waiting three Years before an underwriting profit if any, appeared, but it was a sound career with Prospects and a lot of other nice chaps Work there.
Ugly developments
Now I hear that there have been ugly developments at Lloyds. Outside names Who have been with underwriting syndicates through rain and shine find the underwriter (who commits the syndicate to risk) forming new syndicates without Inviting them to join. The underwriter Sitting at his desk decides whether to place new risks as they are written with the old Syndicate he manages, who are loaded with contingent, slow to settle liabilities ow with the new. Not unexpectedly the members of the old syndicates have a nasty suspicious feeling that they are last in the queue for the better deals and Sir Henry Mance and his men on the Committee are getting some not unexpected whines from outside Members.
The prestige of being a Lloyds underwriter used to pull in a few of the less socially sure but now there needs to be a clean up if some of the harder headed Younger nouveau riche vintage 1969-71 from property unit trusts and company Promotion are not to be discouraged from Joining.
Betting and brewing
When the Prime Minister makes up his Mind on Retail Price Maintenance or entry to the EEC he is not deflected from pushing through legislation. How weak in comParison Reggie Maudling seems — and I suspect that this is what kept him from the leadership. A faint sparkle appeared in his Tote bill, planned to rescue the stateowned Totalisator Board by opening up to SOO High Street betting shops in direct Competition with private book-makers.
I am not surprised that Tory MP's are laying odds that there will be drastic Changes to destroy this commendable bill before it comes up for debate. Unless the Prime Minister puts some spine into Mr Maudling not only will the bookies' lobby stop the Tote Bill seeing the light of day, but the brewery lobby will see him off on licensing reform too.
Sir Charles Clore is a man who gets around, and no doubt he had an idea that Mr Maudling would collapse before the objections of his back benchers. Sir Charles's takeover of William Hill thus makes more sense.
Slater Walker's Guaranteed Bonds
Being a compulsive reader of advertising by the unit trusts, property bonds, and insurance companies whose coupons are directed at the poor and huddled masses, I was susceptible to the advertising of the Slater Walker Guaranteed Security Bond issued by the Slater Walker Insurance Co., Ltd. Despite initial scepticism I am taking their promises at face value. These seem to be too good to be true, and include a guarantee that your capital will never fall in value (not strictly true if you want to encash within five years). Encashment facilities are without charge after five years but are at a diminishing, not particularly steep, rate from nine per cent after the first year. Dividends may be taken in cash without paying income tax, capital gains and surtax. Life insurance cover is, for example, three and a half times the value of the bond for someone aged thirty. Something similar has already happened in Canada, but I know I shall be thought dull in saying that I should have liked the Slater Walker Guaranteed Security Bond to have been backed by one of the dreary old banks and that not too much of the fund is put into Slater Walker companies. But apart from this it looks an excellent scheme and I'll let you know how the bonds I am thinking of buying perform, providing I pass the medical though I am glad to see " Normally no medical evidence required."
Smashing Tory landlord
Michael Heseltine, the MP for Tavistock since 1966 and now one of Mr Peter Walker's Under-Secretaries at the Department of the Environment, is going to lose his seat at the next general election as a result of the new parliamentary boundaries. He is a smasher with the Tory ladies and will probably be adopted by the Eastbourne Tories if a member of the family of Sir Charles Taylor, the present member, does not get the reversion. Besides founding the Haymarket Press with the financial backing of his friend Clive Labovitch, Heseltine did yeoman work, in a private capacity, doing up and subdividing at a fair profit what otherwise might have become slum property in Notting Hill before entering the House of Commons.
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