Portrait of the week
Once again talks intended to settle the national water workers' strike broke down. During the third week of the strike seven and a quarter million people were forced to boil their drinking water. There were heavy snowfalls in several parts of the country and many water mains were ex- pected to burst. In the event of interrupted water supplies householder were advised either to switch off solid-fuel central heating boilers or to keep them running, by various competent authorities. The water workers union continued to demand a 13 per cent wage rise, and the employers of- fered eight and a half per cent. In January unemployment rose to three and a quarter million. ICI offered 1200 workers pay cuts of up to 20 per cent or the sack. The Cabinet planned to reduce taxation in the March budget, in the belief that the worst of the country's economic problems may be over. The Stock Exchange share index reached a record high point while the pound lost ground against Continental currencies and remained at a very low level against the dollar. England, having recently lost the Ashes in Australia — apparently due to a national obsession with one-day cricket failed to qualify for the final of the world one-day cricket tournament. A second breakfast-time television station — TV-AM — was opened and reached an audience of over three million.
Ater successfully evading his pursuers for 38 years Klaus Barbie, 'the Butcher of Lyons', was extradited by the French government from Bolivia to stand trial for crimes committed in the service of the SS. He is now aged 70 but is said to have once been responsible for the deaths of 4,000 Frenchmen. In Ghana 500,000 people who had been forcibly expelled from Nigeria started to look for jobs and homes. The Zimbabwe High Commissioner in London was criticised for purchasing a £700,000 home in Mayfair. He said that he had been trying to save taxpayers' money. Camden Council gave the Russian embassy seven days to pay a £500,000 bill for arrears of rates. There were hopes in Washington that the 'Western' tastes of Yuri Andropov, the new Russian leader, might be an encourag- ing sign. He was said to be fond of jazz and Scotch whisky. A Soviet defector claimed that Andropov's rise to power was much assisted by the advice of the British traitor, Kim Philby. An official Israeli report blam- ed the Defence Minister, General Ariel Sharon, for allowing Phalangist forces into Palestinian camps outside Beirut where they massacred refugees. General Sharon told a party of cheering supporters that he would not resign. In the Falklands, Labour MPs, members of a visiting select commit-
tee, nearly came to blows with islanders after an exchange of views. Argentina took delivery of more French-designed Mirage fighter bombers. Units of the Royal Irish Rangers became the first British troops to be deployed in Beirut as part of the multinational force.
The Italian tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, I cancelled his forthcoming appearance at Covent Garden in Tosco, pleading ex- haustion. He then flew to Honolulu with the young American soprano who has become his protege. Mary Whitehouse's 37-year-old son was arrested in a drugs raid on a house in Staffordshire. The Defence Secretary, Micliael Heseltine, was set upon and felled by a crowd of 60 'Peace women' protesting against nuclear missiles. After police intervention it proved unnecessary to airlift him to safety by helicopter. The Royal College of Physicians was informed that life expectancy in this country will shortly rise to four score years and ten. Scientists in Kansas have finally succeeded in crossing the tomato and the pbtato, thus producing the pomato, a sterile yellow fruit. A woman in Doncaster, faced with the continuing strain of raising three six- year-old male triplets, gave them to the local social services department. In Notting Hill, London, a solution to the problems of policing the area was sought by the in- troduction of two dozen elderly police con- `Trust you to commit crime that was of no interest to a journalist with a cheque book.'
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