Robson's choice
NIGEL Robson is the City banker who wants a new and stricter code for Ministers' investments. It is a welcome change to find the City preaching to Westminster, but Mr Robson stands for standards at both ends of town. He has made that point at the British Sugar Corporation, from which he has resigned after four years as a director. Now he has joined the commotion which has been worked up from the Prime Minister's small shareholdings. He is sure that that there was nothing improper, and that the conventions were obeyed, but he would like to see new conventions already the rule in certain banks. Ministers on taking office should, he says, put their investments into the hands of trustees or of fund managers with discretion to act. He argues: 'It's a question of something being seen to be right, as well as being right.' That seems hard on Ministers who are urging direct share ownership on the rest of us, but it is good advice.
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