Waning interest
Sir: Michael Simmons correctly points out that the Treasury’s large-scale issuance of inflation-linked debt is adding heavily to the government’s interest bill at a time of relatively high inflation (‘Borrowed time’, 30 August). What he may not know is how complacent the Treasury has been about this matter. On the day Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, I was interviewed for the role of chairman of the Debt Management Office. I suggested that a post-Covid inflation surge had started and that additionally oil prices might increase significantly because of the invasion leading to a need for higher interest rates.
Pointing out that nearly a third of UK government debt was inflation-linked, I suggested that they might use the derivatives market to ‘swap’ some of it into at that time still low-cost fixed rate debt. I was told that they sat down once a year to decide the fixed rate, floating rate and inflation-linked mix of debt for the upcoming year and that it was not the right time of year for that.
My suggestion that they might like to tactically amend that timetable, given the changed circumstances, was not heeded. The panel was chaired by someone who went on to become a deputy governor of the Bank of England, and the role went to a Treasury insider.
Paul Hearn
Lambourn, Berkshire
Ideas vs experience
Sir: Many were lured by Labour’s election slogan ‘Vote for Change’, but were unclear what this ‘change’ actually meant. Now they know, there appear to be urgent calls for change again, and Reform, who are untested in government, are certainly offering some eye-catching policies, albeit largely uncosted (‘Reform needs reform’, 30 August). However, surely the only way Reform will get the significant parliamentary majority needed is if it teams up with the Tories, who understand the machinery of government? That way they can drive real change that perhaps doesn’t bankrupt the country, using the Tories’ experience in office to effectively implement the necessary changes.
Andrew Haynes
London SW6
Learning on the job
Sir: Your catalogue of reasons to be hesitant about Reform begins with ‘Farage has no experience of office’. Neither did 18 members of Blair’s first cabinet in 1997, including the prime minister and his chancellor. The remaining five had been only junior ministers or whips. Why should Nigel Farage’s team be any less adept at learning on the job? Certainly, Farage needs to curb his reckless promises about the public finances, but he surely will as the party develops a set of principles that will dictate its success. Aping the scatter gun of Donald Trump will alienate British voters. The model should be the determination of Margaret Thatcher. A manifesto promising strict immigration control, reward for hard work, more individual responsibility, less government, sound money and sound defence could see Farage installed in No. 10.
Francis Bown
London E3
Cattle prod
Sir: In Dot Wordsworth’s latest ‘Mind Your Language’ article there is an understandable query about what to call a boy cow (30 August). The answer is obviously not a ‘cow’, which is female: it has calves and you milk it. Often in the countryside one spots animals grazing in a field and might say to one’s children: ‘Look at all those cows.’ This could be wrong: what if they are steers, bullocks, weaners, young bulls? A collection of these animals should be called cattle.
Mark Milbank
Buckland Newton, Dorset
Colour me lucky
Sir: Either your reviewer or reviewee has erred (Books, 30 August). Wentworth Woodhouse did not offer balls of string to lead you back to your room; this was not the Minotaur’s labyrinth. Each guest was issued with tiny shreds of individually coloured paper to sprinkle on the landings, as the purpose-designed salvers on display there bear witness. What a clever way to lead (mislead) guests to the right (wrong) room.
John Foster
Yearsley, York
Call it compensation
Sir: I was enjoying Justin Marozzi’s ‘Historian’s Notebook’ (30 August) very much until the final paragraph. His envious contempt for those of us still in receipt of final salary pensions ‘in a state hurtling towards bankruptcy’ perhaps needs redress.
When I left university to begin teaching, my first head told me that ‘You probably won’t ever earn very much, but you’ll have good holidays and a fine pension. Those are the compensations’. My peers swanned off into the City and the private sector, earning huge salaries and perks, while often creating the very impoverishment we suffer today through their selfishness and dubious business practices. Meanwhile, I spent nearly 40 years helping children to read, write and learn kindness, tolerance and civil responsibility. I earned, and am now enjoying, my pension.
David Edwards
Norton sub Hamdon, Somerset
Against the grain
Sir: Bruce Anderson’s thoughts on vodka were a delight (Drink, 23 August). But the word ‘vodka’ (wódka) was first recorded in Poland in 1405, long before our eastern neighbours adopted it to replace their own name: bread wine. So of course enjoy your Hydra vodka – but remember, without Poland, you’d be raising a glass of ‘bread wine’, which never quite caught on.
Piotr Wilczek
Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the Court of St James’s, London
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