New war, old weapons

means to get its way.

This strategy encompasses everything from economic policy right down

to membership of House of Commons committees. Unremitting loyalty is

going to be required in this Parliament and some stern power-broking is

going on to instil this thought.

Some call this firm and consistent government. Others regard it as the

first signs of niggling alarm that the formula is not right. The

Chancellor Norman Lamont is digging in his heels and . . .

Why do I suddenly think of Private Bill Speakman who won his Victoria

Cross long ago in the Korean War in the most desperate circumstances?

Out of ammunition and about to be engulfed by Chinese hordes, he is

reputed to have hurled beer and Scotch bottles (empty ones) and

expletives at the enemy. This was a matter of such surprise to the

Chinese soldiers, who might have preferred the bottles to be full, that

Speakman's rearguard company was able to avoid being decimated.

And why do I have this parallel vision of Chancellor Norman Lamont?

There he is beleaguered on some ghastly hill position no longer tenable,

hurling defiant bottles and curses at anyone, like Mrs Thatcher, who

suggests that we are heading for a ''financial accident.''

I suppose that like Speakman, Lamont is reckless of his own safety and

has decided to stand and do his duty. He needs not only Speakman's

courage and his luck. He needs the Prime Minister to stand by him, which

he does so far.

We should not stretch the analogy further. Whereas Speakman's defiance

allowed his ''Glorious'' Gloucester Regiment comrades to withdraw (the

British Army never retreats) to better positions, Mr Lamont's stand

offers no such advantage to businessmen and their diminishing

workforces.

They are told, of course, that inflation is down to 3.9%, and falling,

and that this is a jewel without price. It cannot be exchanged for a

devalued pound and substantially cheaper borrowing.

This is like chucking an empty beer bottle at a chap about to go

bankrupt with his home being repossessed. No withdrawal (let alone

retreat). Got to do the best for the country in the long term. Might

even have to cut the spend on training the jobless for jobs.

On Thursday Parliament goes into the long summer recess and this is

just about all that its members are thinking about. And just as well for

the Government too. Labour, after all, cannot pitch into the action

properly until it has a new leader next Saturday.

As for the Tories, there is concern of course about the

recession-cum-slump. But they have a narrower anger than that. At least

seven senior back benchers are very put-out about the treatment of them

and other colleagues by the Whips. They are being denied the

chairmanships of the key committees whose role is to call Ministers and

their officials to account. The name of Government Chief Whip Richard

Ryder is spoken with bitterness.

But the Whips are out to make their point on behalf of the Prime

Minister. Any MP who plays it rough (who fails to vote the way they

want) is going to be treated rough. It is aimed principally at the new

intake, 27 of whom startled Mr Major by indulging in a revolt on Europe

almost before their feet were across the Stephen's entrance to the

Palace of Westminster.

They had been beguiled by some of the old sweats like Sir Teddy Taylor

and now some of those old sweats are being punished by the withdrawal of

their spheres of influence. Mr Nicholas Winterton, for example, loses

his Health Committee which he has used to mount a constant critique of

Government actions.

The youngsters apparently need reminding that if they want a chance of

office, or service on the subject committee that interests them to

develop their careers, if they fancy foreign travel, or any of the

things that add spice to a back bencher's life, they have got to toe the

line.

Maverick behaviour is not appreciated when the Commons majority is

only 21 and, like inflation, liable to fall further. Be warned that

anyone on the Tory benches who is tempted to adopt the Lady Thatcher

view that some things are more important than party unity will be mugged

by the Whips.

This, after all, is precisely the way that she got through the hard

times in the early eighties. But will it work again this autumn unless

something turns up to prevent this becoming the worst recession ever?

The futile word-processing of the world economic summit last week, the

G7 in Munich, suggests that something is not going to turn up.

Businessmen, noting that the politicians are unable to agree a new

trade deal in the Gatt round, are starting to talk of America preparing

for a trade war. Both the dollar and US interest rates are falling to

make American exports cheap and imports expensive. Mr Major finds

himself impotent, striving for a new deal which he says Britain could

sign ''in half an hour.''

In the meantime, he takes the virtuous path of squeezing the remaining

inflation out of Britain.

This is on the grounds that it needs to be done anyway and, moreover,

if recession becomes world slump then it is as well to have 3% inflation

as 13% or 30%.

Mr Major and Mr Lamont appear to know what they are about. They may

have logic on his side. But their critics are beginning to suggest that

they are using yesterday's logic, that they are fighting a different

kind of problem with the weapons of the last war. Private Speakman

improvised, and survived.