PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
After Tory ill-success in last week's Euro-elections, a new opinion poll put the party's popularity with voters .14 per cent behind Labour's. The Chancellor said that mortgage payers would have to wait 'a few more months' before inflation, and thus interest rates, could begin to fall. The one-day public transport strike on Wednes- days took a step towards becoming institu- tionalised. Commuters have been less dis- commoded than might have been ex- pected. After the courts refused to prevent these or a projected docks strike, the Government signalled an intention to out- law strikes by some public service em- ployees. P & 0 Ferries was charged with corporate manslaughter as a result of the Zeebrugge disaster of 1987. Hanson, Bri- tain's most acquisitive company, mounted a £3.1 billion bid for Consolidated Gold- fields, recently the survivor of a bid from Minorco of South Africa. Prevailing fine weather caused several water authorities to introduce restrictions on water use, and at least one used a helicopter patrol to spot suspiciously green gardens. Mrs Thatcher went to the Madrid summit to argue against European Monetary Union and a `OUT!'
French-sponsored social charter. Conser- vationists protested against proposals for the renovation of Centre Point because some thought the building an outstanding example of 1960s architecture that should be listed. A large archaeological dig near Peterborough unearthed a late Bronze Age precinct apparently dedicated to human sacrifice, while police arrested people try- ing to reach Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice.
IN CHINA, Zhao Ziyang, widely regarded as sympathetic to the now-defunct student protest, was dismissed from his post as Party leader and was succeeded by Jiang Zemin, the party chief in Shanghai, where the first executions of student dissidents took place. Their families were billed for the cost of the bullets. Dame Lydia Dunn visited Britain to plead for right of abode here for Hong Kong people. She got a dusty answer. Mrs Thatcher refused to impose trade sanctions on China on the grounds that there might be 'dangerous' repercussions for the people of Hong Kong. Mr Rafsanjani, the Speaker of the Iranian parliament, strengthened his claim to the succession to his country's lead- ership by negotiating an arms deal with the Soviet Union. He praised Mr Gorbachev as 'a great leader, not only of the Soviet Union but of the world', but said that he `has a long way to come in providing freedoms and people's participation in the democratic process'. The Soviet Union's disaster of the week was a fire and shut- down of the reactor in a nuclear submarine off the coast of Norway. East Germany, Rumania and Czechoslovakia all criticised `anti-socialise tendencies in Hungary, where Mr Imre Pozsgay, the leader of the liberal faction in the Politburo promised the first genuinely free elections in the Eastern bloc next year. There are now at least 65,000 Bulgarian Turks who have been forced to migrate to Turkey. A 'curse Bulgaria rally' was held in Istanbul at which there were calls for war. Mr Alan Bond was declared not to be a 'fit and proper person' to hold broadcasting li- cences in Australia. The civil war in Angola ended after 14 years with an agreement by which the rebel Unita move- ment is to be integrated into the army and
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