1 AUGUST 1998, Page 26

Spendmaster-General

ALL RESHUFFLES have winners and losers, but this one was remarkable for its survivor. Geoffrey Robinson stays on as Paymaster-General to contribute his unique experience of tax and how not to pay it, and company law and how not to comply with it. In Tuscany, Tony Blair may have dis- tanced himself, but at the Treasury Gordon Brown is still surrounded by the funny little troupe that he brought with him. He him- self is now Spendmaster-General.