DEAF TO SIR JOHN
A NOVELIST who described a nation which launched its latest frigate at dead of night would not be thought to have attemp- ted a realistic work. He would be thought to be attempting comedy, or fantasy. The week before the launch, one of the nation's industrialists, whom the novelist calls Sir John Harvey-Jones, for prominent people in this country are fond of titles and not infrequently have double-barrelled names, warned that the nation must reverse the decline of its manufacturing industry. Cer- tainly the nation's shipbuilding industry has shown a precipitous decline. But extra work has been made for it by the unfortun- ate loss of several ships sent to recapture some islands which the nation's Foreign Office had been trying for years to give away. The frigate launched at night re- places such a ship. The yard where it was built is now tendering for another £240 million worth of government business. Yet some of its workers have gone on strike: hence the night launch. We do not yet know how this somewhat laboured tale is going to end, but we suspect that the character called Sir John Harvey-Jones is going to be driven mad.
IN Tuesday's Sun (Page Three Commons Crackers'), Mr Geoffrey Dickens MP praised the half-naked girl of the day, `terrific Tracy Neve'. In an unhappy phrase, Mr Dickens says, 'Girls would give their right arm for a figure like Tracy's.' Would the Sun publish photographs of girls with a figure like Tracy's but no right arm?
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