This scapegoating of particular communities at times of political difficulties is something both our communities have experienced many times in many places. They moved out of their house and shared his in Victoria Square; Ian and Leonard became colleagues after the Hogarth Press joined Chatto’s; they were neighbours in Sussex, and Trekkie kept Leonard company at Rodmell when Ian was in London. At the outbreak of war in 1939, Ian joined the RAF and Trekkie the Fire Service. Together they collaborated on plays and increasingly on scripts for the rapidly growing television industry, writing for series such as Probation Officer and their own series for Anglia, Weaver’s Green (1964).

Doesn’t he get frightened? “You just try and get out of it,” he says coolly. One dealer said yesterday that there were no takers for a line of 100,000 shares on offer in Airtours.A leisure industry observer said yesterday that additional problems lay ahead for the tour operators because resort and hotel operators in the Mediterranean were likely to raise prices next year. First Choice, known as Owners Abroad when Airtours made its bid, is valued at just pounds 151m at the current price.Investors are becoming increasing shy of buying shares in the holiday companies, particularly until a clearer picture emerges about sales of this summer’s holidays. “If you’re trying to let a certain c ustomer in and not let others in, they get annoyed,” he shrugs.

There may still be too many pubs in Britain but with the vast majority still dingy boozers, there is plenty of scope for profitable expansion of chains with the right formula.Grosvenor is expanding at a steady pace, bringing its total to 46 by the May year-end, putting it neck and neck with another recently quoted pub owner, Regent Inns. The record is not good on this front, given British banks’ narrow avoidance of disaster in the US in the 1980s. If Lloyds is now calling the turn in the cycle, the consequences could be significant. He said yesterday in a letter to the Treasury that all relevant information from both the public and private sectors should be available to the market before share offerings to the public.Ian Byatt, the water industry regulator, said: “In my view, regulators should work in a proper way with the Government, but with regard to their independence.”.

The Stock Exchange is to meet industry regulators within the next few weeks to discuss their handling of price-sensitive information and Treasury proposals for a blackout on regulatory announcements during any Government share sale. Their prices have fallen very rapidly, but by sticking to a base-year price, the old GDP measure has given them too much weight in measuring total output. The new one is likely to reduce average annual GDP growth since 1990 by 0.5 points a year to 2.6 per cent.. One day after Robert Maxwell’s mysterious death, his son, Kevin, was so hard-pressed for cash that he planned to sell the yacht from which the tycoon fell, an Old Bailey jury heard yesterday. The yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, was part of an asset package being prepared by Kevin, said NatWest Bank executive Mr Leal-Bennett.
Robert Maxwell died on 5 November 1991.