Brown suede shoes
WHO WOULD be Governor of the Bank of England? Robin Leigh-Pemberton in his last days of office slips out to Wimbledon in the official Rolls-Royce, which runs over his foot — and a policeman then tells him off for holding up the traffic. No wonder Eddie George is trading the Roller in for a Jaguar. He needs to look after his feet, because he and Kenneth Clarke may soon be treading on each other's. The previous Chancellor's parting boast was of the pound's partial recovery, which, he said with foolish pride, was making businessmen complain. This Chancellor will (pointedly) not say that the pound is too high or too low, but does say that a trade gap of any- thing up to £20 billion is telling us some- thing about competitiveness. The Bank's last inflation report said that the Govern- ment's inflation target would be hit — if the exchange rate did not slip further. Mr George is not aiming to miss, now or at all. Just now, the foreign exchanges are a Fran- co-Prussian war in which Britain, for once, has the sense to stay neutral, and the pound is being passed off as a safe haven from European monetary horrors, but it cannot last. The City, where shoes are black and have laces, thinks it a danger signal that the Chancellor has been seen in the Bank in brown suedes. Watch these feet.
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