A Spectator's Notebook
My friend Tony Howard of the New Statesman needs a severe scolding for catching me with one of his magazine covers a week or two ago. Angela Davis's name, with a list of others, was featured prominently on the cover of the issue which I bought — only to discover that the frugally commercial Howard had merely had her autobiography reviewed, and that there was no actual contribution from the black revolutionary. Where will this lead? Rudolf Hess, Howard Hughes, Lord Lucan — or even, perhaps, Margaret Thatcher?
Creeping reflation
When generous extra benefits are handed over to the students and 30 per cent pay rises are granted in the public sector, with only the feeblest resistance on the part of the authorities, it is difficult not to believe that there is some fiendish plan at hand for the management of the . country. Presumably there is no intention, on the part of those that know, to bring the temple down around our heads so that we can renege on our internal and external debts and start again, cleansed as it were, without the troublesome necessity of repaying old obligations. There may be an element of the levelling and redistributive process, loved by Paul Johnson, the collectivists and anyone else who feels he has a chance of being levelled up — though, if there is, I think it must be accidental. It would be fanciful surely, to believe that there is any matter of principle or equity in the thinking of those who readily meet outrageous demands on the consolidated fund. It cannot be submission to force majeure since, for instance, the armed services have that most efficient of recruiting sergeants — unemployment — to maintain their strengths withqut pay rises. Therefore, presuming that we are not being allowed to drift blindly (and a big presumption it is I know) the most generous interpretation of what is happening to us may, in fact, be a variant on the Keynesian concept. Instead of stimulating the economy conventionally, through job creation and the expansion of credit to commerce and industry — which got us in such a mess in Ted Heath's time — public • sector wages are being allowed to increase in the hope that the extra disposable income will filter through in the form of orders for business and industry. The snag is, that those people in the public pay know what is going on in the real world and are sensibly saving most of the money they were intended to spend. The rest are getting us in an even worse mess by buying imported goods.
Kruggerands
Denis Healey's motive in banning the importation of Krugerrands in the last Budget was not, I assume, for the protection of the balance of payments but rather an attempt to stop a flood of a useful coin that lends itself to smuggling, so defeating the exchange controls and, more important, the capital transfer and wealth tax proposals the Chancellor has in mind. The premium placed on the 'domestic' Krugerrand over the international price does not reflect a true differential, since smuggling must have become, or will shortly become, a two-way and stabilising factor. Publicly quoted corn pan ies that hold legit. Krugerrands against a rise in the price of. gold bullion are gambling. The Krugerrand is no longer free bullion in any sense of the word, but has become what it ostensibly Was all along for the wrong-doer — specie again.
Dame Barbara Hepworth
Evan Anthony writes:
The tragic circumstances surrounding the death of Barbara Hepworth make it difficult to write the obligatory piece that the death of the famous and great ritually require; the sensationalism of so horrific an end will doubtless soon diminish, and the more significant aspect of Dame Barbara's life will remain. When they do, they will speak forcefully of the remarkable contribution Barbara Hepworth made to art, and to sculpture in particular.
I remember seeing the artist my first and only time at the private view of her last show at the Marlborough Gallery in 1972. I restrained myself from pulling out a piece of paper and asking for her autograph. I am sorry now that I was so ridiculously and uncharacteristically inhibited. 'The Family of Man' series being exhibited didn't mightily impress me at first viewing, competing as the sculptures did with the crowd who were there to chat and drink. But I wrote at that time: "Seeing the petite Miss Hepworth, I could not but marvel at the thought of her taming her material so expertly." I think that a reasonable epitaph.
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