Sum of sorrows
It is a matter of general comment that since Andreas Whittam-Smith, formerly editor of the Guardian Business Section, became editor of the Investors Chronicle (which was never my favourite journal with its emphasis on the juvenilia of stocks and shares) it has become better, particularly in the front with its tighter journalism and less bullish line. I like the paper much more now. The Investors Chronicle's gain is the Guardian's loss. Mr Anthony Harris, one of the new editors, is having difficulty keeping up with the non- partisan standards set by Mr Whittam-Smith. His sums (with a good dollop of Guardian pink opinions) do not add up like his pre- decessor's.
On Monday he wrote an interesting but biased piece about the Rolls-Royce an211 engine for the Lockheed Tri-Star. He de- scribed his editorial as an outburst, which may be a reason for its inaccuracy. Not sur- prisingly he sets much store by the multiplier effect on unemployment costs to the authori- ties if the contract is cancelled. He makes the statement that cancellation will result in redundancy payments to 40,000 people: 'the total involved here is likely to be about £1,000 per man or £40 millions'. This calcu- lation presumes that every man sacked has worked for Rolls-Royce for not less than two Years and up to the maximum period re- quired under the Redundancy Payments Act, which is ridiculous in the case of Rolls- Royce where there has been a large em- ployment build-up during the course of the an211 contract.
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