Aunt Hattie's legacy
GORDON Brown is living the Antiques Roadshow dream. This begins with an ugly old pot in the hall, which used to belong to Aunt Hattie, no beauty herself. It has been used to hold walking-sticks, fishing rods, dog leads and the usual detritus of a family home. Suddenly a smooth young man drifts in and suggests that it might be mildly valu- able, so how about sending it to Christie's? On the day of the sale there is standing room only. Auntie's pot has been recog- nised as a T'ang vase and the auctioneer is counting his commission. Do I hear a mil- lion pounds? Two? Five? Ten? Sixteen? Against you, sir. . . How lucky that when the dogs barged into it, they never knocked it over. The pot in the hall at No. 11 Down- ing Street had been used to hold licences for mobile telephones. Some smooth young Treasury official with an expert up his sleeve advised the Chancellor to put them up for auction. Now the bidding has passed £16 billion, with Vodafone in the lead, and the proceeds are promised to that most austere of good causes, reducing the National Debt. Even then there would still be £400 billion of debt to repay, so we must hope that his luck holds.
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