CITY AND SUBURBAN
Not being a bird, Nigel needs to fold his wings
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
Icannot find anyone, except the com- mercial manager of Lufthansa, with a good word to say for the summit at Bonn. How wearily the Chancellor treks once more to Heathrow, his waistline braced against another bout ' of official banqueting, his mind on the in-tray which awaits his return. He has had to be in orbit round the international financial circuit for most of the time since the Budget. In that time, his in-tray has erupted. Suddenly, no area of public finance is settled or sacrosanct (except, of course, mortgage relief and the tax privileges of the pension funds). The finance of local government, of state pen- sions, of further education, of house im- provement — all are disputed territories, the Whitehall troops mass on the depart- mental frontiers, and the Treasury general cannot get back to his command post. That goes far to explain his last-minute interven- tion in Norman Fowler's plan to scrap the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme, with the Cabinet commotion that has followed. Some Chancellors, like Sir Geof- frey Howe, like to work through their ministerial team; others, like Denis Healey and Nigel Lawson, dominate rather than delegate. The present Treasury ministerial team is not powerful enough to leave Mr Lawson much choice in the matter, even if he wanted it. His advisers respect in him, as in Mr Healey, a voracious capacity for work, reading, and argument. But, like the Indian stationmaster, not being a bird, Mr Lawson cannot contrive to be in two places at once.
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