PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The loneliness of the long-distance runner.
igeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania announced their withdrawal from the Commonwealth Games, in protest at Britain's refusal to impose sanctions on South Africa. The Commonwealth Games Federation responded by deciding, 11 days before the Games open in Edinburgh, that Zola Budd, a South African who ran for Britain in the 1984 Olympic Games, and Annette Cowley, a South African swimtner who has a British mother and British nationality, are ineligible to compete as members of the British team. Malaysia joined the boycott of the Games. Sir Geoffrey Howe had earlier met Mr Mugabe, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, who said that Sir Geoffrey's 'lone adven- ture' in southern Africa was 'reprehensi- ble, futile and useless'. Sir Geoffrey said he had two meetings arranged with President Botha. Mr Nelson Mandela announced through his wife that he considered Sir Geoffrey's efforts a non-event, and was not willing to meet him. Mr Leon Brittan, obliged to resign from the Cabinet at the time of the Westland affair, said Britain must declare its readiness to impose sanc- tions on South Africa, or Sir Geoffrey's mission would be 'utterly useless'. It was learnt that a report on the Westland affair, shortly to be issued by the Commons' Select Committee on Defence, severely rebukes all concerned, including Messrs Brittan and Heseltine, but reserves its most stinging criticisms for Sir Robert Arm- strong, Cabinet Secretary, and Mr Bernard Ingham, press secretary to the Prime Minister. A woman died in Hartlepool General Hospital after catching tetanus from her garden gnome's fishing rod, on which she had impaled her leg.
THE IRA murdered two soldiers in South Armagh, having murdered a policeman in Fermanagh the week before. There were sporadic disturbances on 12 July and after, during Orange celebrations. The Republic of Ireland complained of indulgence allegedly shown to loyalists in Portadown, where they were allowed to march, in limited strength, in a Catholic area. In Madrid, nine Civil Guards were killed by a bomb, in Paris a bomb exploded at police headquarters, killing one policeman and injuring 20, and in Munich an industrialist and his driver were blown up. At least 49 people died in Hindu-Muslim rioting in Gujerat. Britain's Honorary Consul in the Colombian port of Barranquilla was shot dead. Miss Hungary, who last October won the first beauty contest held in Hun- gary since before the war, coinrhitted suicide. The British rate of inflation fell to 21/2 per cent, the lowest for nearly 20 years. A British driver, Nigel Mansell, won the British Grand Prix and as a result is top of the world championship table. Mrs Victor- ia Gillick,, who campaigns for greater parental control over teenage daughters, was told that one of hers had been photo- graphed rubbing suntan oil into her boy- friend's back on a Greek beach while wearing nothing over her breasts, and said of the journalist involved: 'The bitch. If get my hands round the woman, they will have me for homicide. Shit. The Mail an Sunday are bastards.'
AJSG
Previous page
