1 AUGUST 1998, Page 26

Walking the plank

A GOOD JUDGE in the City described Tiny Rowland as the most dangerous man he had ever met. One of his faithful share- holders called him a buccaneer, until I pointed out that buccaneers tended to make people walk the plank when they had no further use for them. Edward Heath called his company the unacceptable face of capitalism, but only by mistake. He had meant to say 'facet', but somewhere between him and his typescript the 't' fell off. I am sorry to think that with his death there will be no more Tinygrams. These ferociously readable pamphlets fired broad- side at his enemies were crammed with red- hot libels, but he had no need to spell out his subtext: 'If you want to bet I can't prove it, I'll see you in court.'