Notebook
Mr Neil Kinnock and his Shadow Cabinet seem to be in danger of breaking the law by refusing to appear on television with Mr David Dimbleby. They are not in dispute with the BBC or with Mr Mbleby or with his newspaper, the iklimondand Twickenham Times. They are therefore engaging in 'secondary action' in suloport of Mr Dimbleby's striking. jour- nalists, which is supposed to be illegal. Apart from that, they are making themselves look very foolish. If Mr Kin- hock wants to be a healer, a unifier, a na- tional leader, he should not be involving himself in petty industrial disputes. '''eryone can see that Mr Dimbleby is not a Mr Neil Kinnock and his Shadow Cabinet seem to be in danger of breaking the law by refusing to appear on television with Mr David Dimbleby. They are not in dispute with the BBC or with Mr Mbleby or with his newspaper, the iklimondand Twickenham Times. They are therefore engaging in 'secondary action' in suloport of Mr Dimbleby's striking. jour- nalists, which is supposed to be illegal. Apart from that, they are making themselves look very foolish. If Mr Kin- hock wants to be a healer, a unifier, a na- tional leader, he should not be involving himself in petty industrial disputes. '''eryone can see that Mr Dimbleby is not a news In order to keep his
try to alive, he was obliged last year to
'rY to reduce the number of printers. he 1
ern
P.0Yed. When he could not get the union to agree on this, he made two of his 24 print workers redundant. This set in train a series of events which led, through no fault of his, oto the present situation in which he employs ° Printers at all and all his journalists are n strike. The journalists were originally called out by their national union which, as it we,,1113use of Lords confirmed last week, Am '''' riC/I. legally entitled to do so. Whatever 7.r kinnock may think of that, few people w‘t:11 be able to understand his decision to ,ja'eic' Mr Dimbleby on the television. Mr sotlinbleby is a political broadcaster of long A Inding and high reputation whose value utiePends on access to politicians of all par- 4.es. He could not continue long in this role ,p1 al I members of the main opposition party him refused to be interviewed by od eft list r.oylc.et Mr Kinnock appears bent on ,, 118 his broadcasting career because some industrial nonsense in Surrey.
It was depressing to open Wednesday's Ti 41 +nes and find in it obituaries of three en, each of whom was admirable in his ,°.wo Way. One of them, John Stewart Col- ivy's : , , is the subject of an article by A. N. ilson on another page. The other two Sir Tito Gobbi, the Italian baritone, and 0! Hugh Fraser, the Conservative Member ,. Parliament. All will be greatly missed. I Wish I had met Signor Gobbi, for he always came across on the stage as a delightful fis'-hliaracter and it is rare to find so great a star ery no signs of arrogance or tempera- rrneetit. He appears, indeed, to have been a lion Markably cosy person, as his great affec- an for England indicated. But he was also Puccini 11,11surPassed interpreter of Verdi and wsichelhi, and combined fine musicianship w!„" exceptional acting ability. I personally _11,1 never forget him as lago in Verdi's iude11°. Sir Hugh Fraser, on the other hand, ...,,..„geLttletriat:::2ind-hearted, expansive, timid ugh
He was an old-fashioned Scot- and gregarious, who, as far as I know, was almost without enemies, even in the House of Commons. He seemed to have strong opinions on practically everything, which he expressed with infectious enthusiasm. He was also an exceptionally know- ledgeable gossip. As a Tory, he belonged more to the old paternalist school than to the modern free marketeers. But he was rather more highbrow than his manner in- dicated and was, for example, a founder of the Conservative Philosophy Group. Among those who will miss him most are members of the Jewish community. He was always a passionate supporter of Israel and, towards the end of his life, was working on a history of the Jews in Britain.
Thinking of opera, I have concluded that there is much more to be said for per- forming opera in English than the snobs and purists would have us believe. I was taken last weekend to hear the Meisters- inger at the Coliseum and was delighted to find that for most of the time I was actually able to understand what was actually going on. I have seen it before in German two or three times, and on each occasion I have at some point fallen asleep. This was not because I did not like the music, which is consistently marvellous throughout, but because it is difficult to concentrate of five and a half hours on anything, especially on a drama which one cannot follow. Even if the English sometimes sounds clumsy, it is worth suffering occasional moments of em- barrassment for the advantage of staying awake. It is also, of course, true that Ger- man translates much more comfortably into English than Italian and that in some operas it is more important to understand what the singers are saying than it is in others. Iowe to Mr G. N. Yannopoulos, the 1.Chairman of the Graduate School of European and International Studies at Reading University, some intriguing infor- mation about Mr Andreas Papandreou, the Greek Prime Minister. This concerns Mr Papandreou's relationship with the KGB mole in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry who was arrested in Oslo last January. The spy was Mr Arne Treholt, the Ministry's Director of Press and Information, who ad- mitted having spied for the Soviet Union for 15 years before being caught. What has been pointed out in Greece and in the con- tinental press, but not, it appears, in Bri- tain, is the close friendship that had existed for a number of years between Mr Treholt and Mr Papandreou. Mr Treholt was a fre- quent guest at Mr Papandreou's villa in Kastri outside Athens, and it seems that the Prime Minister was mesmerised by him. Treholt got to know Mr Papandreou during the time of the Colonels when he was acting for Scandinavian governments in their case against the Greek regime before the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commission. Inflating the importance of his links with the Norwegian Labour Party, which was then in power in Oslo, Treholt managed to convince Mr Papandreou that he was privy to Nato policy discussions on Greece and that the Alliance planned to sustain a military regime in power there indefinitely. From that time can be traced an escalation in Mr Papandreou's attacks on the United States and other Western governments. In- deed, since he became Prime Minister in 1981, the Greek Government has missed few chances to undermine the solidarity of the Western alliance, whether in Nato or in the European Economic Community, on several issues, including Cruise missiles, disarmament negotiations and Afghanistan. Greek delegations at Nato or EEC meetings have often dissented from statements critical of Russia while condem- ing`in strong language American actions in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Lebanon. Treholt, who was one of the organisers of the successful Norwegian campaign against EEC membership, was hauled in by Mr Papandreou in opposition to help campaign for the same cause in Greece. After Mr Papandreou became Prime Minister he stopped being just someone for Treholt to manipulate but became a source of infor- mation as well. We do not know what Mr Papandreou may or may not have confided in him, but we do know that Treholt, enjoy- ing extraordinary facilities, closely followed all the EEC meetings held in Athens under Greece's presidency during the second half of 1983. According to the Italian magazine Panorama, Treholt has disclosed to his in- terrogators that he used Greek sources to find out the strategic plans and political in- tentions of the Western Alliance. Mr Papandreou has yet to give an account of his relations with Treholt. It is time that he did.
Alexander Chancellor
Previous page
