8 . « 1 — 7 THE:«i®^TIMEP No. 64,459 FRIDAY OCTOBER 9 1 992 45p ----- li — 1 PROVENCAL PASSIVE POETIC PILGRIM VOICE JUSTICE Peter Mayle pops Can other people’s Nobel prize for back to London KRfj smoke really loll? modern-day Homer life iglgS & limes, page! Life & Times, page 4 Page 3 No boost for Tory morale In Brighton, Thatcher steals it with a kiss Lame Lamont Enter stage leaves Major left: Santa Margarita By Matthew Parris nv Brighton Even the sea was calm, the streets hushed. Pennants hung motionless in the still air. Dawn By Philip Webster, chief political correspondent crept up silent, in windless suspense — “breath- less”. as Wordsworth says, “with adoration”. NORMAN Lamont yesterday peared, from the remarks of a mem be has set the objective of Brighton was waiting for Baroness Thatcher. X' jailed to lift morale over die succession, of speakers, to keeping underlying inflation There were police everywhere. At every comer - economy or to remove die yearn for him to announce (excluding mortgage interest and on every rooftop, trained marksmen, there ‘question mark over his future. direct action to assist ailing payments) within a range of 1 for her protection, scanned the horizon. Some His speech to the Conservative' industries. to 4 per cent looked out to sea. in case it should part to reveal ft conference ruled out substan- Instead, the Chancellor’s Interest rates will be set to her. Some looked up into the sky, lest the lady Jdal cuts in interest rates as a priority was to reassure the meet that objective, and Mr Lieutenant Colonel of the Parachute Regiment means of boosting f growth and markets that ERM withdraw- Lamont would use a range of should come that way. reviving the battered al meant no weakening of the indicators including house When would she arrive? How? Nobody knew. economy. government’s resolve to hold prices and the exchange rate Wild rumours swept the town. One story had it The Chancellor's low-key inflation. down This was in making his judgment al- that she had cancelled and left the country; performance leaves John Ma- warmly welcomed by leading though he would not set an another that she would jor with the difficult task of pro-Europeans in the cabinet exchange rate target helicopter in with a restoring Tory confidence Kenneth Clarice, borne secre- But the Treasury’s letter barnstorming speech; ‘You’d think when he addresses the confer- tary, described Mr Lamonl's made dear that no new mone- yet another that she encetoday at the end of a week speech as “veryworkmanlike”. tary targets would be intro- was already in Brigh- with all those in which his policies have been Mr Lamont had been duced. although a “monito- ton — had been here marksmen, savaged by Baroness Thatcher expected to wait until next ring range” for broad money all week under deep someone and Lord Tebbit Monday to announce his might be announced in the cover — by day, in Mr Lamont made a 2 per monetary policy but as he Autumn Statement in mid- disguise, with Elvis would have cent inflation target and the made his speech, he also November. Presley, battering had- got her' tightest possible squeeze on released a letter to tire Com- At tire heart of fiscal policy dock in a fish-and-dup public spending the corner- mons Treasury, and Civil Ser- will be even deeper cuts than shop — by night plot- stones of his new economic vice committee in which he Set expected in public spending, ting with Lord Tebbit. Everybody had his own policy to SB the void left by out his plans to establish for inducting a severe squeeze on theory. Your sketchwriter followed the most timid Britain's departure from the the first time a specified target public sector pay. But he gave and accepted that she might arrive as mortals do. European exchange-rate for inflation. no further details and did not in a car. at the main entrance. Along with 50 mechanism. The Chancellor The loDg-term aim is a rate suggest that economies in other journalists, 1 waited there, from breakfast received a muted reception erf 2 per cent or less, while for public spending might be Uniformed men with guns lined each floor of the from a conference that ap- the remainder of this pariia- balanced by lower interest car park opposite. “You'd think with all those rates. marksmen someone would have got her.” The unusually passionate quipped a passing MP. not a million miles from debate had seen, the Chancel- tiie government, to me. A cynical bunch. Tories. Chancellor skirts lor under fierce attack from New rumours spread among us. One was that party members. Ministers she had negotiated permission to deliver a speech were accused of kicking Tory of four sentences. Press men speculated . “No. supporters in the teeth and No. No. No.” the big issues kQfing small buanesses. We discussed a theory that Lady Thatcher was Mr Lamont upset one sec- helpless, out of touch, and a prisoner of desperate “IF JOHN Smith is the an- tion of his audience by at least men “using” her for their own political purposes; swer, then what is the ques- The Chancellor’s leaving open the option of one and another — that she had herself started this tion?” Michad Heseltine restatement of polity day returning to the ERM rumour to distance herself from measures she demanded on Tuesday, bring- win hot end die although he said that Britain's must take. Or were her friends just trying to shift ing the house down at the recession, rally hisparty conditions were “unlikely to be the blame? As we argued over her true nature, the Conservative Party confer- or even protea sterling, satisfied soon”. real woman sank beneath the vapours of claim ence. But as Norman Lamont saysAnatole Katetsky - Gordon Brown, the shadow and counter-daim. Lady Thatcher approaches descended from the podium Chancellor, said the speech the status of Eva Perrin. Mother Teresa or Buddy in Brighton yesterday morn- was “a rehash of the old Holly. A faction will never believe it when she ing, Mr Hesdtine’s remark riWe outside the ERM Al- monetarist targets that foiled dies. A faction believes she already has. took on a new meaning. If Mr though a further half-point in the 1980s”. As we argued, we noticed a change in the type Lament's speech was foe an- reduction may still be on the The stock market yesterday of representative arriving. Gerald Howaith, MP, swer. then what on earth was cards in the near future, the registered only mild enthusi- her friend, stationed himself at the door. Tall the question? voices arguing in the cabinet asm. while sterling firmed Platform pals: Baroness Thatcher and John Major putting up a united front yesterday Continued on page 18, col 3 The question Mr Lamont for a mud) bolder strategy to against the mark on foreign chose to address was certainty end the recession have cfeariy exchange markets. not the one on the minds erf been over-ruled. The governor of the Bank of British businessmen and vot- If the Chancellor thought Bngland, Robin Leigh- contained no that by disappointing the pub- Pexnberton, in a speech to the as house prices ers. His speech Dismay There’s a him of what the govemmoir lic and the Conservative Party CB1 last night, endorsed the would do to end the recession he would impress his other government’s policy frame- welcome in tire warm and restore confidence after audience —the City and world work. and defended deri- probar sion to pull sterling out of the biggest monthly dip financial markds he have the devaluation. This was in — “w* noww mi u» sharp contrast to Mr Lamonfs bty foiled in this respect, too. ERM. The FT-SE 100 Index the at its day’s best at first public statement on posh Although the pound and dosed By Rachel Kelly, property correspondent devlautaion polity, at the IMF stockmarket fell only slightly 2.538.81. a 21.7 points rise. feff understood be ar least was recorded by estate agents meeting in Washington. Then in response to Mr Lament's HOUSE prices by at least to CointryLmng 7-9 cent in September, the the 1.4 per cent fall last month. The biggest he described a new objective of comments, that was probably Brighton reports, pages 2.8 per double speech, biggest-ever monthly foil and recorded earlier this month by agents, including Hambro economic polity — to aitieve not the end erf the financial Lament's page 9 equivalent to one-third cut the Nationwide index, based Countrywide, TSB Property “sustained non-inflationary markets’ reaction. As one of Tbatcheranalysis. page 14 a over year. smaller sample. Services and Halifax Estate growth”. But in yesterday's the world's top investment Nicholas Ridley a on a Diary, 14 The precise figure will be The news will be a further agents, report sales were down speech he had reverted com- managers remarked. Mr and page that Leading article. page 15 isaied today in toe respected blow to the housing market by about 40 per cent com- pletely to the traditional Trea- Lamont confirmed the reaction, page 19 Halifax price index. It is and will plunge many more pared to last September. Har- sury language. The only British economy would re- City people into negative equity, in ry HD1, managing director of objective he mentioned was main stuck in a state of Umbo which their home is worth less Hambro Countrywide, one of “the lasting defeat of infla- between outright recession proper recovery for the Is than their mortgage.