We need not go so far as to import the US system of colour coding different threat levels, but it would be useful to know how serious a specific alert was considered to be by the security services.The Government should also release more information about specific threats. The questions mount up: is the arrest of a dozen suspects this week related to the terror alerts? How old is the information on the Heathrow attack? Do these multiple alerts mean people should be more vigilant?Britain has no equivalent to the US Department of Homeland Security, which takes responsibility for issuing terror alerts and establishing the level of the threat. While Mr Ridge maintains that his department does not “do politics”, some, understandably, think differently.
Despite this, our own Government should learn some lessons from the US approach to issuing terror alerts One of these lessons is transparency. The information that certain banks in the UK might be a target too was made public by the US authorities. The disturbing revelation that al-Qa’ida was planning an attack in Heathrow airport seems to have come from Pakistani officials. The Government’s policy is to give out as little information as possible.

The result of this official silence, as we have seen this week, is endless speculation and a good deal of confusion. This climbdown has reinforced suspicions that the alert was timed to benefit President Bush’s re-election campaign. Few would argue that the US government’s apparatus for alerting its population to specific terror threats is perfect. The events of this week have certainly added to the impression of fallibility. The head of their Department of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, was forced to admit on Tuesday that his earlier explicit warning that some US banks are in imminent danger was based, at least in part, on old information. Indeed, the raising of interest rates is a strong sign that the MPC expects growth to continue.British consumers and home-owners will feel a degree of pain due to this latest rate rise, but the broad picture is still good. The key is not just to enjoy our good fortune while it lasts, but to ensure it lasts as long as possible..

They are justified in doing so.Talk of a new paradigm of permanently low inflation is without foundation, and the present benign situation owes a lot to the fact that manufacturing powerhouses with cheap labour like India and China have boomed in recent years. But the removal of the Bank of England from the hands of politicians has boosted confidence, unemployment remains low, and economic growth is respectable. The recent figures that show total UK household debt has reached £1 trillion indicates that Britons are in no mood to stop shopping just yet.The Bank of England knows very well, however, that incremental changes in interest rates are much better than sharp shocks. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) sensibly calculates that when people feel a slight pain due to their debt repayments they will do the sensible thing and start to pay it off.The British consumer debt is by no means the great lurking danger as is often portrayed. People are taking on more debt because they are making calculations about their employment prospects, the affordability of borrowing and the state of the economy, and are reaching a positive conclusion. Too many people have been persuaded by the rock-bottom interest rates of recent years to over-extend themselves on their mortgages.
The Bank of England may curtail the purchasing of expensive houses, but it will have a harder task stopping people piling up the balance on their credit cards. While a property market crash is in no one’s interests, a modest depreciation would certainly be welcome.

The quarter-point rise in interest rates, announced yesterday by the Bank of England, will probably not mark the end of the great British credit binge, but it could well mean the beginning of the end. House prices do not seem to be rising as aggressively as they have in previous months, and a new increase in people’s monthly mortgage payments will surely reinforce this trend. The idea of resurrecting the defunct post of court jester is a good one, because the number of people willing to speak truth to power these days (with or without a funny hat) is falling And besides, everyone likes a good laugh. But who is suitably qualified to fill this important role? Perhaps the Football Association, after it has completed its inquiry, could put forward a suitable candidate. After all, has there ever been a collection of clowns to rival the present incumbents of Soho Square?. As a non-better he would often rail at the treatment of his horses by the handicapper, in one outburst claiming that the “handicapping system in this country actually encourages cheating”.He was a lover of the horse and of fair play. Indeed, an argument he aired in 2000, that a horse on its first start in a handicap race should not be allowed to run over more than two furlongs further than it had previously, in order to combat deceit, was this summer enshrined by the Jockey Club in its Rules of Racing.Tony Smurthwaite.