Notebook
Signor Amintore Fanfani is famous for , having miraculously short legs. He is ap- '';r°xiMately the same height standing up as s't;ing down, and that height is considered a ,13e even in Italy. But he is a clever, gritty little fellow, and at 74, he has been asked to the the country's 43rd government since "e Murder of Mussolini. Once again the ex- ta°rdinary stability of the Italian political s8'stern is paraded before the world. „°vernments may rise and fall, but the rul- "g Politicians never change, unless they die ,ff,°I,d age or, like Aldo Moro, are bumped i" by the Red Brigades. When Signor last, government fell the time before a,st, it was replaced by a new government identical in all respects to the old — no member of the cabinet was replaced. Fan- : ni was first a minister in 1947 when Italy as still a monarchy. He was practically lever out of office for the next 21 years, Earyking during that time as Minister of Afrur, Agriculture, the Interior, Foreign s airs, and four times as Prime Minister. rUbser, r entlY, as President of the Senate 1,0 „8"2'nte 12 years, he has been second only s',."'e President of the Republic in the con- zoLnutinnal hierarchy. He comes from Arez- 0 the Tuscan city which recently turned propaganda t_ , 0 be the headquarters of wri3aganda-2, the sinister masonic lodge ch"lch embraced among its members leading international Democrat politicians, judges and wasn't crooks. Fanfani, however, 441 sn't a member. He has nevertheless done ii;°t for his native city. It is allegedly due to in influence that the great motorway link- orgi the toe of Italy to Milan suddenly veers the course in the direction of Arezzo, with it"s result that Arezzo is prosperous while tilehistorical rival Siena is not. The brand ow line from Rome to Milan seems to make a similar diversion. If he manages fan1 will Yrnt a new government, I hope that Fan- 0rroer now do something about law and p the area. My family's house in the its °v in ince of Arezzo was recently emptied of this by burglars, and I am off there the t weekend to discuss this outrage with not s to teal aa t I Marshal of the Carabinieri who he has 'suspicions' which he can- Possibly discuss on the telephone. ith Fanfani bouncing back at the age .10G..,of 74, it sounds a little feeble of Mr groh'nond to give up active politics on the reti'llds that 70 'seems a reasonable age to hut re'. Seventy is not very old nowadays. littl:le may be forgiven if he is now feeling a Ork„ wearY of the whole business. His rent and Shetland constituency is gh he prides himself oncosting the taxpayer more in travel expenses than any other member of parliament, he has pro- bably grown sick of rushing backwards and forwards on aeroplanes. It has been a heavy price to pay for being in the House of Com- mons. When he first entered the House in 1950, he found that it offered 'many of the minor comforts of a club'. But the quality of the membership has declined since then, and it will decline still further when Mr Gri- mond leaves it at the next general election. Sad though it is, his decision does not really come as a surprise. While showing almost child-like excitement at the prospect of a third party breakthrough in British politics — something he was unable to achieve dur- ing his 11 years as Liberal Party leader he has also displayed considerable detach- ment from the Alliance, often appearing more in sympathy with the policies of Mrs Thatcher. It is still a pity that the breakthrough, if it happens, will have come too late for him to play an active part in it. Perhaps, however, we can persuade him to write more often for the Spectator.
After all the fuss a week or two ago about the imminent eruption of a spy scandal which would outclass Maclean, Burgess, Philby, Blunt and the rest, the swift, sharp sentencing of Mr Geoffrey Prime to 38 years in prison came as something of a disappointment. The revela- tions were few. We were just left wondering how anyone could have given responsible employment to somebody of such creepy physical appearance, whether or not they knew about his friendship with the Soviet Union and his dallying with little girls. The man is quite dreadful looking. From what one reads the the press, it would appear that nobody actually passed important informa- tion to anybody else. What was going on was penetration of the other side's 'disin- formation' techniques. 'Disinformation' seems to be the principal activity of both the CIA and the KGB. It is more sophisticated than merely passing informa- tion. However, the CIA appears to have taken the security lapse at Cheltenham ex-
tremely seriously. A colleague returning this week from Washington reports that within the CIA contingency plans were made for the neutralisation, kidnapping, or wiping out (exactly what is not clear) of a nest of Soviet agents working in that attractive Gloucestershire spa. This may not sound a likely story, but all the indications are that it is true. The plan, unfortunately for the security of the West, did not meet with the approval of the American Government.
T saw the Princess of Wales the other day 1 at a fashion show in the City. And very pretty she looked. Also very thin. Everybody, indeed, remarked on her thin- ness. There is no doubt about it. She is very thin. This does not, of course, mean that she has anorexia nervosa or any other com- plaint. She has probably just been slimming a bit since the birth of her child. But it is quite understandable that the popular press should be interested, even that they should indulge in speculation. The strange thing is that the Palace should take any notice. In the old days, Buckingham Palace spokesmen used to say nothing at all to anybody. Now they cannot stop talking. When, for example, it was discovered that Prince Andrew was on holiday with an ac- tress called Koo Stark, these spokesmen, in- stead of refusing comment, inundated the press with opinions about the rights of young men to have a good time or, in con- tradiction, about the duty of young princes not to embarrass their mothers. On the sub- ject of the thinness of the Princess of Wales, a Buckingham Palace spokesman told the Daily Express on Tuesday: 'We ask those responsible for these grossly exag- gerated stories to leave her alone, for God's sake.' Another Royal source declared to the Standard: 'It is appalling to see her being given the kind of attention normally reserv- ed for those at the extreme top of the pop world.' These were hysterical reactions which could only fuel speculation that something or other must be wrong with our future Queen; if not anorexia nervosa, then certainly a high degree of sensitivity to what is written about her in the press. I like to believe that she is made of sterner stuff. But if she is, for whatever reason, in a bit of a state, then it is up to the Palace to conceal the truth. That is what Palace spokesmen are paid to do.
Iwish I understood a little more about economics. We are told that there can be no hope of reducing the level of unemploy- ment in Britain unless inflation is brought down first; and indeed this Government has done a good job at lowering the rate of in- flation. In Iceland, they have an inflation rate of some 60 per cent. Yet, for reasons which I cannot begin to understand, the number of unemployed in that country has recently risen from 217 to 395 — an unemployment rate of 0.4 per cent. What is Iceland's secret?
Alexander Chancellor
Previous page
