28 MAY 1988, Page 22

Commanding heights

I AM surprised that the Prime Minister, preaching on the tenth commandment to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, did not, in that home of metrical psalmody, prefer a metrical version. My friend the Dean of Merton contributes one on page 17, and there is also the earlier rendering by Arthur Hugh Clough. This is attuned to Thatcherist virtues of economy and sound money — 'Thou shalt have one God only; Who would be at the expense of two!' No graven images may be Worship- ped, except the currency' — and culmin- ates with her text:

Thou shalt not covet; but tradition Approves all forms of competition.