Cats' cradle
HERE is a formidable political figure who had been shadowing the Treasury for five years, did his homework most thoroughly, and brought his small team of homework- ers to the office with him. They and he then had to adjust from the arts of opposition to the crafts of government. In opposition it was an achievement for them to jump up and down and succeed in attracting atten- tion, and they brought this technique with them. Some of the opposition was mutual and has been carried forward, too. (That has happened to the people's party before now. Rebecca West likened Harold Wil- son's government to three women of her acquaintance who kept a boarding kennel for cats, no two of the proprietors being at any one time on speaking terms with the third.) Into government this Chancellor's homeworkers brought, as I noted, the tech- niques of the water-gardener — selective leaking and planting with a liberal top- dressing of manure. If the Treasury had been a company, they would have been hauled up to the top floor of the Stock Exchange tower by now, to be called, stam- mering, to account for their handling of price-sensitive information. This Chancel- lor likes to proclaim his belief in transparen- cy and accountability, and has applied them (for instance) to the gold reserves, where the Bank of England is no longer asked to fudge the figures. In his own department he finds these virtues harder to achieve.
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