CITY AND SUBURBAN
Cooking a Euro-fudge to suit all tastes, and the return of Solomon Binding
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
Rich, bland and nutty, the Euro-fudge is now baked, or at any rate half-baked. Last month I caught its unmistakable whiff, blowing across the North Sea from Dutch ovens, It can, as I said, suit all tastes. What I particularly relish is the solemn declaration of intent on monetary union which, we are told in advance, is not compulsory and will not be worth the paper it is drafted on. Here comes a revenant from the 1960s, Harold Wilson's sidekick in his dealings with the unions — welcome back, Solomon Binding. It is a year since all the excitement over a Euro- pean common currency was whipped up, for the inter-governmental meeting in Rome. In that time the three countries most concerned — France, Germany and Britain — have all found something that interests them more. Germany has simply turned round and faced east. In France, the president is busy with his own troubles, some of them self-inflicted. 'There are many things you can do for an old girl- friend,' as a banker observes — 'You can give her a Cartier watch, but you don't make her prime minister.' Our own Gov- ernment, with one eye on the polls and the other on the calendar, will be happy to get round the next corner, and happier still if this can be made to look like a triumph for British diplomacy. Its worries are closer to home, with a recovery that is still not much more than a gleam in the Chancellor's eye. He must want to do more for it than make wish-fulfilling speeches about green shoots, now looking rather autumnal. Given the chance, he would surely cut interest rates, but is temporarily stymied by the rules of the European exchange rate mechanism. He must envy his opposite numbers in Tokyo and Washington, who have no such inhibitions. Both look like cutting their interest rates. It is absurd that the ERNI makes him steer by the lira and peseta and ignore what is happening to the world's two major currencies. They will make • their presence felt, in time — but time is limited.
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