CITY AND SUBURBAN
Lost in the fog of war, ministers call in vain for Sir Humphrey
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
The British people, being subject to fogs and possessing a powerful middle class, require (said Disraeli) grave states- men. John Smith has rehearsed for the part, and his high specific gravity has let him menace the middle class while leaving Dizzy's party in a fog. This week the Con- servative leaders have suddenly chosen to fight the election on tax. Where have they been all this time? Where were they when Mr Smith opened his shadow budget box? The earner of (say) £40,000 a year faces the highest marginal tax rate in history, and the added refinement of paying 'fair rates' on his house, whatever those prove to be, out of taxed income. A surer way of sending the house market into meltdown would be hard to devise. It was left to City Editors and their economists to work this out, and they were (as, in their work, they must be) quick about it. Ministers have taken a fort- night to catch up. What is the matter with them? I suspect that their long years in office, with the resources of Whitehall at their disposal, have spoiled them. They have got used to ringing the bell for Sir Humphrey (or Sir Terence or Sir Peter) and having the numbers worked out for them. The moment an election is called, though, Sir Humphrey and his mandarins slip quietly away to run the country. It is something they rather enjoy — their peri- odic chance to manage without politicians. The volume of paper in the system falls, I am told, by four-fifths. Their sometime masters do not enjoy it so much — and the fog closes in.
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