. . . money down the drain
I HAD not thought of Mapp and Lucia as a handbook of municipal finance, but I now see where councils like Western Isles learned to borrow money in the market and re-lend it to BCCI. They get their ideas from E. F. Benson's books. Alastair MacDonald — of the Isles? — points me to the episode where Lucia becomes Mayor of Tilling and plans to raise money for renewing the drains. 'Say we borrow £10,000 at 31/2 per cent,' she argues, 'the interest on that will be £350 a year. We invest it, Georgie — follow me closely here — at 41/2 per cent, and it brings us in £450 a year. A clear gain of £100.' That, agrees Georgie, is brilliant, but if the money is all reinvested, what will pay for the drains? 'I see what you're driving at, Georgie. Very acute of you. I must consider that further before I bring my scheme before the Finance Committee. But in my belief — of course this is strictly private — the work on the drains is not so very urgent. We might put it off for six months, and in the meantime reap our larger dividends. I'm sure there's something to be done on these lines.' There was.
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