As a result ERM staff are frequently sent to locations all over the world to evaluate the risks and to recommend

As a result, ERM staff are frequently sent to locations all over the world to evaluate the risks and to recommend the appropriate courses of action, explains Eric Turner, the firm’s UK managing director.
However, this is not the only factor behind the growth of an organisation that has seen revenues rise 10 per cent in the past year, to about pounds 17m. Mr Turner points out that it is also benefiting from companies’ recent tendency to cut back on staff and outsource much of the work they regard as peripheral to their main activities. Both her parents were in the RAF, a sister is a nurse, and going to Bosnia wouldn’t bother her in the least; in fact, she’d welcome it. If you had to die, she said thoughtfully, getting killed in a cause like that would be “an admirable way to go”.It was curious, as she talked, how this strange, dual personality emerged, a kind of microcosm of army psychology. On the one hand was her quite remarkable maturity – her acceptance of discipline, desire to help others, readiness, even, to die for the right cause; on the other, an equally remarkable immaturity in her apparent total lack of questioning of, say, the British Army’s political role, or the formidable regimentation of her everyday army life. Shortbreads, jams and oatcakes are among the many other Scottish products to be found in their food hall.For distinctive Scottish cheese such as Bonchester and Lanark Blue, the place to go is Iain Mellis.

He could certainly point to Tory precedent, especially if Mr Clarke deals the populist ace first.SFO landingIt HAS been a busy week, thankfully in dull August, for the boys (and girls) in blue suits at the Serious Fraud Office.There were raids on Wednesday morning on the homes of Ashley Levett and Charles Vincent, “Mr Copperfingers” himself, as part of the inquiry into the pounds 1.2bn copper trading losses made by Sumitomo and rogue trader Yasuo Hamanaka. Another tax would hark back to a darker, dinosaur past and raise the hackles of a City that Labour has been eager to court. It would also bring intriguing conflict with the unions, who voted resolutely against the levy back in 1981.With the coffers bare and lots of spending priorities to juggle, however, it could be a card for Mr Brown to keep up his sleeve. Retrospective, one-off windfall taxes like Sir Geoffrey’s in 1981 are not so easily avoided.

The threat of them could be a stick with which to beat charges down.For many in the markets, the final objection comes down to a gut feeling that it is unfair to single out specific sectors for punitive measures. But, again, there is a strong argument that the banks, like utilities, have imposed a selective tax through increased charges – on all but large corporates – to make good their own past squander.There is no evidence,either, that Gordon Brown has weighed the pros and cons. Unlike the utilities, the public outcry against banks has largely quietened. In the early 1980s, banks argued that profits needed to be high in inflationary times to maintain a strong capital base Also, they had to store up surpluses for bad times ahead.

But with the inflation outlook low and banks voluntarily parting with cash, neither case holds water now.That old bogey of increased competition ahead is also not much in evidence, with margins increasing, mergers all the rage and the high street leaders behaving like the cosy oligopoly of old.So what about the final consideration in any arraignment: the public interest and chances of a successful prosecution? Banks might be able to dodge a levy by accounting tricks, lifting bad debt provisions and the like. But with the Treasury bare, election tax cuts beckoning and the Government needing a populist boost, market speculation is returning that the banks may just be looking too cushy for their own good.Consider the five charges for the prosecution:o Barclays: profits up 15 per cent to pounds 1.3bn; dividends up 15 per cent; and a special share buyback of pounds 470m.o NatWest: underlying profits pounds 879m, up 23 per cent; dividends up 14 per cent; share buyback pounds 450m.o Lloyd’s TSB: a 12 per cent profits rise to pounds 1.14bn; dividends up 15 per cent; possible buybacks on the way.o HSBC (including Midland): profits up a third to a staggering pounds 2.32bn; and a 62 per cent dividend hike.o Abbey National: profits up 16 per cent to pounds 558m; dividends up 20 per cent.Now for the defence. But personal customers and small businesses still reckon they are getting a raw deal in the low-inflation, supposedly low-interest rate 1990s.There is no suggestion that Kenneth Clarke has even considered a Sir Geoffrey levy. Rising income and margins, falling bad debts and aggressive cost-cutting have also left dividends surging forwards.And to rub salt in the wounds, Barclays and NatWest have just given a bumper pounds 920m back to lucky shareholders, making nearly pounds 1.5bn in the last year, as they throw off cash by the bundle.True, that may be more disciplined than than splurging the money on ill- judged Third World lending or the property bubble, as before. Profits from the country’s top five reached pounds 6.2bn in the first half of the year, with more than pounds 12bn on the cards for 1996 and perhaps pounds 14bn for next year.Real returns on equity have reached historic levels – more than 30 per cent in the case of Lloyds – against sector highs of around 22 per cent in the1970s and1980s. Not Denis Healey, Roy Jenkins, James Callaghan, Sir Stafford Cripps. It fact it wasn’t any Labour Chancellor, but a Conservative knight, the then Sir Geoffrey Howe, quoting from that eminent Tory philosopher Edmund Burke.