Food and Events

IT'S THAT time of year again. The gold watch will soon be the birthright of every child in the land, but then that is a form of democratisation as well.. Nor are the jewellers too happy about seeing their basic commodity fall so far and so fast. Only the rich and the powerful, and their secretive bankers in Zurich, could seek to control the physical resource.There are losers, of course. Breaking into the vaults of the Bank of England, or even Fort Knox, will no longer be the pinnacle of a gentleman's crime. Not that the Bank of England is wrong in its basic decision to sell, however clumsy the tactics in announcing a sale and programme of auctions.

If anything, Eddie George, the Bank Governor, should have made the decision years ago when Canada set off a bandwagon of sales that now takes in the IMF and even Switzerland. After centuries of worship, gold is no longer the symbol of economic strength, the seal of financial solidity And all one can say is: hooray. The substitution of paper money for the solidity of gold may seem unsettling, if not downright dangerous, to those for whom brass in the hand is the only real currency. But it is also a supreme example of the democratisation of financial institutions Anyone can hope to build up reserves of money. When governments dabble in the markets, they invariably get it wrong. The analysts, the banks and the jewellery business all believe that it will only propel the steady slide in gold prices - already down 10 per cent since the Government announced its intention of selling half its reserves only two months ago - ever faster downwards Yet long experience suggests the opposite. Which is one reason to welcome the opening auction of the Government's gold reserves due today. WHEN GOVERNMENTS decide to sell, that is a sure signal for the investor to buy.

But it is hard to believe that if all else fails, there is not a part of the Prime Minister that would relish putting his case in a sustained campaign directly to the Northern Ireland people.. Perhaps this is just the sort of idea all responsible governments consider before discarding it. It is a safe bet that a referendum - the second in the year - has been at some point canvassed deep inside the British Government. He is at his most eloquent when he is arguing, not only that Unionism will get the blame if the process falters now but, more potently still, that the gains the Unionists have made are too valuable to put at risk - the principle of majority consent to Northern Ireland's constitutional status; the devolved assembly they have so long sought, and now the "seismic change" of an apparent Republican intention to decommission arms.He is already reaching beyond the politicians to a people he believes ache for a lasting peace. After 30 years of violence we can all afford to wait a little longer.But there is a counter case to these siren arguments, namely that the lessons of the past two years is that progress is only made when momentum is maintained That has been Mr Blair's way.

And there will be strong voices raised - if Mr Blair cannot now persuade the Unionists - in favour of slowing down the process There is no need for indecent haste, it will be said. Perhaps when the marching season is over, particularly if it can be kept as relatively peaceful as was the weekend's Orange march at Drumcree, some further way can be found of bridging the gap between Unionists and Republicans. Perhaps such a proposal will remain as dormant as it seems at present. The hazards of such a daring, almost Gaullist course, lie in the fact that defeat for the new agreement in a plebiscite would set back the peace process, perhaps indefinitely.There is a danger that Ian Paisley's DUP and, worse, Trimble's UUP would boycott such a poll, even though to do so would show a lamentable lack of faith in the party's ability to persuade the voters of their case.To have any meaning, a referendum would need a majority not just of the Northern Ireland population but of the Unionist segment of it and to achieve that might require Mr Trimble and others to detach themselves from the sceptics and campaign for the solution now sought by London and Dublin - which Mr Trimble has understandably shown little eagerness to do in the past few days.These are all real problems with the referendum idea.