6 DECEMBER 1986, Page 27

Big, bigger

THE City's leaders are subject to unusual stresses. A pillar of the money market complains to me that, taking the chair at an international financial conference the other day, he was passed a note from a merchant banker, also of my acquaintance, on the platform. Thinking that it might bear such urgent news as the return of Bank rate at 20 per cent, he opened it, to find a mysterious message: 'Why do Sloane girls not like gang bangs?' This, he sup- posed, must have a financial significance, but he could not decode it. He wrote 'Explain' on the note and passed it back. It was returned to him, amplified: 'Too many thank-you letters to write.'