Down the tunnel and . . .
I HOPE that the Queen, as she emerges from the Channel Tunnel this weekend, will stop the Royal Train for a word with Lord Kingsdown, her Lord-Lieutenant of Kent. He is her first line of defence. When the Gallic hordes spring to arms and rush through the tunnel, bent on conquest, he must marshal his fencibles on the white cliffs to repel them. That is only right, for without him, I doubt that it would have been built. Under Eurotunnel's previous chairman, a nice chap in a retirement job, it showed no sign of getting beyond the high- water mark. Its bankers grew restless. They formed up to the Governor of the Bank of England, Robin Leigh-Pemberton, who moved into action. He sent for the combat- ive Alastair Morton, who was then sorting out a merchant bank, and told him: `There's something I want you to do for us . . ' Sir Alastair bored for Britain and deserves his glory this weekend, but so does the man who picked him. Mr Leigh-Pem- berton is nowadays Lord Kingsdown.
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