Lawson sideswipe over 'end to boom and bust'

LORD LAWSON last night took a calculated sideswipe at Kenneth Clarke, the Chancellor, by warning that it was 'premature' to promise an end to 'boom and bust', writes Donald Macintyre.

The former Chancellor coupled his pointed declaration that governments have no power to abolish the 'endemic' economic cycle with an emphatic complaint that the Government had not opted for a fully independent Bank of England.

Lord Lawson's remarks in a London lecture contrast sharply with Mr Clarke's Mansion House speech last week, in which he pledged that any relaxation of anti-

inflation policy would ensure that 'bust' would swiftly follow 'boom'.

In his Social Market Foundation/London School of Economics lecture, Lord Lawson said: 'The plain fact is that the economic cycle is endemic - which means incidentally that all the current talk of no return to 'boom and bust' is somewhat premature to say the least.'.

He said that the Chancellor's decision to publish minutes of his interest-rate meetings with the Bank's governor was an 'interesting innovation', but an honest account of the discussions could undermine the credibility of the authorities' decisions.