DIARY OF THE YEAR
Wednesday 10 February: the findings of the Wilberforce committee on power workers' pay caused some confusion between disputing Parties. In the CommOns Mr Can interpreted It as an increase of 10.9 per cent: Mrs Castle as 15.5 per cent, and some union leaders as
• even higher. The Minister of Aviation Supply held out a glimmer of hope of saving the tan 211: Sir Con O'Neill warned Common Market Countries that Britain was not budging from her original offer on the finance issue. As the toll of the Los Angeles earthquake mounted, estimates of the extent of damage had to be greatly increased. Cracks in the Van Norman reservoir still threatened the area.
Thursday .11 February: before beginning their four-day conversion to decimal currency, banks found themselves first having to clear 4l million cheques in the D-day rush. The Rolls- Royce Purchase Bill was rushed through the Commons amid scenes of confusion, but result- ing in a definite three-week reprieve for the ita 211. The secretary of the Committee on uK Citizenship unofficially revealed that the Government's forthcoming Immigration Bill Would abolish automatic five-year residential qualification and would give the police new Powers of prosecution. Vauxhall Motors an- nounced a loss of £91 million and blamed it on labour troubles.
rriday 12 February: the Laotian government in Vientiane todak declared a state of emer- gency as North Vietnamese troops captitred CIA headquarters in Long Chien and South Viet- namese forces pushed to the Ho Chi Minh trail. The Decimal Currency Board claimed that a survey showed that 77 per cent of the country `had no worries or fears about the new cur- rency system'. In Lyons Mr Powell warned France that British people had no wish `to see their national sovereignty incorporated into the political fabric of a United Europe'. Mr Heath was meanwhile insisting that the Six must im- prove their terms or 'talks will fail', Saturday 13 February: late in the evening Tom Jackson, the PO workers' leader and Bill Ryland, acting chairman of the Post Office, MCC for the first time since the four-week-old strike began. The management raised their offer by 1 per cent in return for productivity improvements. Mr Jackson was not at all optimistic. In a speech in London Mr Wilson repeated his personal commitment to entry into the Common Market. Thirteen diphtheria carriers were under observation in Manchester. Mr Heath and the Northern Irish PM began talks at Chequers on the Ulster crisis.
Sunday 14 Febtuary: after eleventh-hour talks in Teheran Middle Eastern oil-producing countries reached an agreement with Western oil companies. The effect of the deal will be to put at least one (new) penny on a gallon of petrol. British Rail and the London Under- ground changed over to decimal currency a day early, and reported all had gone smoothly. -Thirty-four people died in Yugoslavia when a train caught fire inside a tunnel. Ray tiling- worth, the English Test captain, took his team off the field for fifteen minutes in the seventh Test in Sydney after beer cans were thrown by the crowd in protest at Snow's fierce bowling.
Monday 15 February: with the ro union rejecting an offer of 9 per cent Mr Carr sum- moned both sides for 'crisis talks'. There were few complaints from customers as Britain com- pleted its first day of decimal coinage. An increase of £1 in television licences and a reduction of £10 million in the ITV levy was announced by Mr Chataway. The food price increases which caused riots in Poland's Baltic ports last December were cancelled by the Polish rat. Three cows gate-crashed a meeting of agricultural ministers in Brussels, and an export licence was granted to the Velasquez portrait bought by a New York dealer in November for £2,310,000.
Tuesday 16 February: In his White Paper on Local Government, the Minister for the Environ- ment reduced the number of local councils from 1,200 to 370. Tom Jackson attempted to explain his idea of a mediator to Employment Minister Robert Carr. Lionel Bart, composer of 'Oliver!' etc. was arrested on a drug charge and con- fessed to being 'on the breadline'. Ray Illing- worth lodged an official protest against umpire Lou Rowan. Bernadette Devlin was advised by a New York Times editorial to go back to Ire- land and help stop the bloodshed in Ulster.
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