PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Innocence abroad.
The Government claimed that a vote on the social charter to be taken by the Com- mons would have no effect on its intention to ratify the Maastricht Treaty. This judg- ment, revealed by the Foreign Secretary, Mr Douglas Hurd, derived from a newly sought opinion from law officers. It discon- certed both the Opposition and Tory oppo- nents of the treaty who had hoped that Amendment 27, in favour of the charter, would wreck the whole Bill. The Health Secretary, Mrs Virginia Bottomley, announced a radical restructuring of Lon- don's health services over the next six years; including the cutting of beds by 2,500 and the possible merger or closure of some hos- pitals. Headline inflation fell to 1.7 per cent; headline unemployment rose to more than 3 million. The Queen agreed to pay tax on her personal income from 6 April; her annual bill has been estimated at £1 million; her personal fortune was said to be substantially less than £100 million. Inheri- tance tax will not be applied to property left to the heir to the throne. The Queen dropped a legal action for breach of copy- right against the Sun after it published a front-page apology and paid £200,000 to the Leonard Cheshire Foundation and the Save the Children Fund. Mr Thomas Ward, the American lawyer accused of stealing more than £5 million during the Guinness takeover of Distillers, was found to be inno- cent by an Old Bailey jury. Mr Darius Guppy, an old Etonian and friend to the Princess of Wales's brother, was found guilty of a £1.8 million insurance fraud. A two-year-old boy was murdered after his mother lost him in a Bootle shopping cen- tre. A nurse faced 26 charges of murder, attempted murder and grievous bodily harm against children in hospital. Dr Kalim Siddiqui, leader of the soi disant British Muslim Parliament said that he would like to 'break every bone' in Mr Salman Rushdie's body; he later commented that he had been speaking rhetorically and in anger. Brian Inglis, editor of The Spectator from 1959 to 1962, died, aged 76. Bill Grundy, the journalist and former Spectator columnist who encouraged the Sex Pistols to say 'fuck' on television, died aged 69.
PRESIDENT Clinton issued a 'call to arms' to the United States, which he explained as meaning that middle incomes would be more heavily taxed in order t° diminish the budget deficit. He also earn° up with another candidate for Attorney" General after two others had withdral when it was revealed that they had employed illegal immigrants as nannies: She is Miss Janet Reno, aged 54, who 1„5 safely childless. A United Nations cony(/' attempted to reach Muslim villages in the east of Bosnia which are seriously short °f food. Serb artillery launched attacks 0° southern Croatia. The Prince of Wes made an official visit to Mexico. The Phial pines senate voted to bring back harigl The people of Peking are being encourage to meet targets for the elimination of files' more than a third of houses in village homes around the capital are without lava. tories. Peking is keen to host the OlyniPt° Games in 2000. Unemployment in SPaal rose above 3 million. Lithuania elected 8 former communist, Mr Algird,,,/ Brazauskas, as its first President since the second world war. India beat England bY innings and 22 runs in the Test at Mack several England players had been brought down by diarrhoea after eating prawns 11)
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