CONFIDENTIAL
8.
I do not believe this is the time to concede any ground to the Treasury on this issue. It is still by no means certain
that the Treasury see this trigger level option as the only way in which to safeguard pensions: apart from the other options in the paper, they could argue that this question
could be settled nearer 1997 or that HMG should simply agree
to consider cases of individual financial hardship. But if we
can bring the Treasury to accept the principle of an
HMG-funded sterling safeguard, we and the Governor may in the
end have to concede that this would operate at a rate of something like 22:1.
9.
In the current climate on public expenditure, I see
practically no chance that Mr Portillo will agree our
preferred options without a fight. If we are still in
deadlock with the Treasury after this meeting, our best hope
of using the Governor's visit would be to include this subject
on the agenda of OPD (K) on 18 November.
Водля
PF Ricketts
hk.arr.ADM
SLM
CONFIDENTIAL
4
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