7 MARCH 1998, Page 24

Steering trouble

MESSAGES smuggled out through the wire round HM Treasury confirm that (as I was saying last week) Gordon Brown and his warders are experiencing difficulties of their own making. This week brings the lat- est in the desperate series of steers and counter-steers that have followed the pro- posals for Individual Savings Accounts, Geoffrey Robinson's contribution to tax reform. Treasury ministers have been trying to blame the ISA debacle on their civil ser- vants, grumbling that they should have been told what was wrong. They might have asked. The Treasury is a superb machine but I again urge the Chancellor to read the owner's manual.