Jobsworths wash whiter
A WONDERFUL week for jobsworths. From All Fool's Day onward, every finan- cial business must have a Money Launder- ing Reporting Officer. Tens of thousands of fussy letters and leaflets and video-cassettes are cluttering up the mail. Prison terms await those who neglect to go though the prescribed motions, whether money gets laundered or not. This is a Euro-regulation, and hands up those who expect it to be enforced in Palermo. Meanwhile the Department of Trade is receiving submis- sions on a planned regulation all of our own. This would intervene between trade creditors and debtors, giving companies a right to levy interest on unpaid bills. What rate of interest? The Office of Jobsworths will tell you. There is nothing to stop com- panies writing such terms into their con- tracts now, or offering discounts for prompt payment. Of course, it takes two to make a contract, or three, if you count the job- sworth. This is a bogus solution left over from the late Chancellor's ferocious squeeze on credit and cash. The banks, so often damned as creditors because of the effects of his policies, now find themselves blamed for being too nice to their cus- tomers. The chairman of John Laing (a Mr Laing) complains that they have propped up enfeebled contractors and let them sur- vive to compete with him. There ought to be a regulation.
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