A Spectator's Notebook

Notwithstanding the temporary lift in the stock market, it goes without saying that we are living through not only an unhealthy business period but a time of unpleasant readjustment. A day of so ago, a young banker told me that an interesting proposition for individuals with substantial cash on deposit is to take over, from their bankers, the secured debts of those who are unable to repay during these difficult days in the property market, Many banks are apparently willing to take 60 or 70 pence in the Pound for perfectly sound though overdue loans, leaving realisation to hardier folk with the stomach for the unpleasant work of squeezing the last pips from the security. On the same day, I heard it reported that Christopher Selmes, the young take-over man of the 'seventies, had left for the United States. It will be remembered that he borrowed £17 million from Keyser Ullman to take over Grendon Securities before the property market crashed. He gave Keyser Ullman, in addition to the security of the shares being bought, around £3 million of Dowgate and General, a public company he controlled, as well as — and this was the potential danger to him— a personal guarantee. It is said that he extricated himself in a typically dashing way by paying £500,000 from his personal resources to have that personal guarantee torn up by Keysers, leaving him free to go to the US. No one has said how Dowgate and General are faring.

GLC censorship

It has no doubt given a great deal of self satisfaction to Mrs Mary Whitehouse, and Mr Peter Thompson of the Festival of Light movement, to see the GLC dismiss Mrs Enid Wistrich's film committee's proposal to abolish censorship. Though the decision is to be reconsidered within twelve months, I continue to be against the stifling of the visual message, or the spoken or printed word where adults are concerned. It does not seem to me that a jot of a case has been made either against physiologically explicit sex or against violence, except on the grounds of boredom and tastelessness. The only reservation I might possibly make—and to say even this is to be presumptuous, and would undoubtedly incite further argument, is the Preaching and the inculcation of the message of evil: the calculated encouragement of crime and the deliberate preaching of sedition are obvious examples, My tolerance does tend to stop short at the promotion of intolerance.

City pulpit

Nicholas Davenport, my distinguished colleague in our financial pages, appeared in the Pulpit at St Mary-le-Bow last Tuesday to be quizzed by the rector, the Rev. Joseph McCulloch, on his book, Memoirs of a City Radical. I hear the rector was quite amazed to hear him backing up the church in its disapproval of money lenders. The sin of usury having been Iut on a par with the sin of adultery and fornication by the mediaeval church, Mr Davenport hoped that Bow Church would take it as seriously.

When the rector asked whether the Stock

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change was not a casino, my colleague sttoutly defended the capital market and hoped that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were taking full advantage of the bull market, so that he clergy stipends could be increased. When he said that the trade unionists were now the nouveaux riches and the middle classes the nouveaux pauvres there were almost cheers from the congregation.

The McTavish affair

One of the curious features of modern justice is that it no longer appears to mind, very much, whether or not It is seen to be done. Take, for example, the case of the nursing sister, McTavish, who was convicted of murdering Mrs Lyon, an elderly patient under her care in Ward 5 of Ruchill hospital by giving her illegal doses of insulin, and of whom Lord Platt, a known supporter of euthanasia, subsequently said that he hoped that she would do the same for him when he became more senile.

A Court of Appeal, last Friday, found Miss McTavish to be not guilty of murder, on the grounds that the trial judge had not given adequate direction to the jury about certain statements that Miss McTavish is said to have made to the police. Miss McTavish has since told the press that she believes that the truth about what happened to Mrs Lyon will eventually be made known. She explained that the injection which she had given Mrs Lyon was simply "sterile water," that she herself has been a scapegoat, carrying the can for other persons and that her conscience was clear. But Ruchill hospital is an NHS hospital, and any of us might, at any time, find ourselves there as a patient. The public has an absolute right to a better explanation. How did an innocent person serve four months of a life sentence for murder? For whom does she claim to have been a scapegoat? What was the due cause of death if not an injection of insulin? What is this truth that she believes will eventually be made known, and which was not made known at her trial? What was she doing, anyway, giving helpless old ladies injections of sterile water? And, last but not least, what on earth is going on at Ruchill hospital? Until satisfactory answers are made publicly known, talk of reinstatement is somewhat unrealistic.

Meals on wheels

There is no end to my saga of the rising price and eroding quality of British Rail breakfasts. After the price had been heaved to £1.40 last week, this week the back bacon gave way once more to streaky. All that remains now is a materialisation of the old music hall joke about employing smaller waiters so that the meals look bigger.

Lobby Lyrics-13

Bert Buggins, since he was a nipper, Had disapproved of Hunt the Slipper, And so he moved a Bill which sought To make illegal such a sport. John Bluff said slippers were a pest And huntin' them controlled them best; One mustn't think pursuit annoyed it; In fact the slipper quite enjoyed it.

But Mr Oswald Snitch said, "Stuff!" The Bill did not go far enough.

They should extend it, in his view, To cover Hunt the Thimble too. To gain enjoyment from the plight Of other creatures can't be right! And, laying down this lofty line, He took Bert Buggins out to dine. The meal was really very pleasant, Some foie gras followed by roast pheasant.

Ogilvy Lane