PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Fire consumed the south stand at Brad- ford City football ground in less than five minutes while a match against Lincoln was being played. Fifty people died at once; 170 were treated in hospital. It is believed that the fire was started by hooligans who threw a smoke bomb from the adjoining terraces into the stand, where it fell onto the seven-foot-high drifts of combustible rubbish beneath. The Club Chairman, Mr Stafford Heginbotham, an entrepreneur, described the ground as a `shitpit', but denied he had received official letters warning him about the fire hazard, which the club had used earlier to try to raise money for improvements. On the same day, a 15-year-old boy was killed, and 70 policemen and 70 fans injured when a wall collapsed after a not at Birmingham City's football ground. Politics were quieter: Mr Francis Pym announced the formation of a new pressure group, 'Conservative Centre Forward', with 30 members, among them
Sir Ian 'Inside Right' Gilmour, to press Mrs Thatcher to adopt Wetter policies. The money supply jumped smartly up- wards; the unemployment figures were expected to do the same, for the second month running. Mr Denis Thatcher cele- brated his 70th birthday. He attributes his good health to gin and cigarettes. Michael Bettaney was drinking a bottle of spirits a day while working at MI5, but the report of the committee of inquiry into the security services revealed little else that was new, and Mrs Thatcher rejected plans for more parliamentary control. American police bombed a house, killing six people.
BOMBS planted by Sikhs near Delhi exploded, killing 80 people. Mass arrests followed, and three Sikhs died in custody after resisting the police in their inquiries. Twelve people were killed when the roof of a swimming pool fell on them in Geneva. President Reagan left Europe after addres- sing the European Parliament, where he suggested the installation of a military hotline between East and West, while the British Labour group distinguished itself, as usual, by loutish behaviour. The Pope visited Holland, and was greeted by large demonstrations, a rude pop song, and flights of inflated condoms. The Falklands airport was opened in the presence of Prince Andrew and numerous other VIPs, for whose benefit the strict rule against drinking on RAF flights was relaxed. George Foulkes, a Labour MP, provoked a female Falklander to smash a water jug on the table in front of him when he praised the courage of Argentine civilians at a celebration banquet. The VE Day celebra- tions ended, 40 years too late, with a huge military parade in Moscow. Lord Gowne gave permission for 1,000 pairs of bikini underpants to be floated on the Serpentine on 20 May by Mr Robert Pollak, an artist. ACB
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