Your policies tonight
I SHOULD never have let myself in for this. Trying to explain, a week ago, the Government's merger policy for last week, I promised an update on this week's policy as soon as I could work it out. Well, now we have a speech from Ian Lang, the man in the revolving chair at the Department of Trade and Industry, saying that the touch- stone of his policy was competition except, of course, when things were in a transitional phase, as they so often are. This doctrine may be a variant of the Principle of Unripe Time, which lays down that it is never the right time to do the right thing. More research is needed. One clue to poli- cy appeared this week at the expense of British Gas, which was shaken to the roots when its regulators fell on it and hacked its prices back like brambles. In the bad old days when these utility companies were nationalised industries and had to comply with political whims, they would be made to hold their prices down in front of general elections. It did wonders for the Retail Prices Index, and their own prices could always catch up once the votes were in. Ministers would never behave like that nowadays. Not when they have regulators who will do it for them.
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