18 NOVEMBER 1989, Page 25

Nought for your comfort

MY machine prints decimal points like this 000 to distinguish them from full stops . . . and of course from noughts 000 or capital 000s or small 000s. So I tried to say last week that a Texan petrochemic- al plant had blown up at a cost of f103 (one point three) billion — The Spectator's printer thought my printer's nought had shrunk, and reinflated it to £103 billion. Since the plant was insured at Lloyd's, this must have spoiled some of my readers' breakfasts. Whoops. Sorry.