CITY AND SUBURBAN
Ups and downs of a stock which isn't for widows, orphans or pensioners
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
Iknew Nigel Lawson was coming out fighting when he chose to confront Sir Robin Day in a pink and green tie. The Chancellor's ties are a proven indicator, for which the Treasury should nowadays be grateful. At moments of caution he prefers a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve tie — suggesting to his party faithful that he is just a retired naval officer maintaining a tradition of public service. The Garrick's colourful stripes, by contrast, carry a mes- sage of cheerful ebullience and readiness for argument, with few holds barred. It is just like him, with a tricky Autumn State- ment more or less safely out of the way, to find himself in a gratuitous wrangle, on a subject which is not the Treasury's respon- sibility, with a group of journalists who were none of them specialists on Treasury subjects. He now lets us understand that he was only planning to put a little more money in the way of a spending depart- ment, so helping the needy, who include its minister — though John Moore, if we are really moving towards a presidential form of government, now looks a ready-made vice-president. I was happier with what the Chancellor explains that he was not saying. I could even offer him a slogan: 'To each according to his need.' The politically unthinkable is a category invented by those who find thought inconvenient, as he does not. That does help to explain, though, why his political stock, though it has proved a rewarding investment, is not for widows and orphans or — some — pen- sioners.
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