—Portrait of the Week
FIFTY TORY MPS RUSHED to sign a Commons motion calling for a better deal for London com- muters, after rail drivers began a go-slow in support of a pay rise on top of their present £12 per week. On the same day, most seemed to accept With good grace the MPs' own pay rise of 85 per cent, putting their pay up to £3,250. The Lawrence Committee made no recommendation for the Leader of the Opposition, but Mr. Wilson proposed giving him £4,500, having set his own salary at £14,000. Four Labour backbenchers decided not to accept their £29 per week until old age pensioners had begun receiving their 12s. 6d. extra next spring, but the Minister of Pensions later promised to try and bring the pensioners' benefits forward.
THE BUDGET SANK IN, and road hauliers and taxi- drivers became the first in the queue for price increases. Descending to the lion's den of a Lord Mayor's Banquet, Mr. Wilson insisted that at heart he felt the Budget contained many ideas that he deplored. The trade gap narrowed, and imports fell by £17 million : this must have been a shock to the Sunday Times which exclusively forecast a 'massive increase' in imports. As the same paper confused the Prices Review Body with a non-existent 'press' review body, maybe it was too bewildered to notice. Mr. Wilson dis- missed the cook at No. 10, while it was alleged that Napoleon had been poisoned.
NOTHING WENT RIGHT for Mr. Gordon Walker, whose visit to Bonn brought him no closer to the West German Government. But a safe seat was found for him at Leyton: the sitting member, Mr. Sorensen (now to be a peer), kept his delight at the news admirably under control. As a final blow to the Foreign Secretary, his farewell party had to be moved from the Smethwick Labour Club because of a colour bar. Mr. Butler became father, of the House, and Jimmy Edwards, de- feated at Paddington, resolved to return to variety rather than fight again.
MR. WILSON KEPT HIS PROMISE to ban arms con- tracts with South Africa, and waited to see if Mr. Verwoerd would kick us out of the Simons- town base. Meanwhile Mr. Nkomo was semi- released by the Southern Rhodesian Govern- ment, and was sent to a restricted area for four Years. The 'frank, comradely' Sino-Soviet talks in Moscow ended, and Mr. Chou En-Lai went home, with relations hardly friendlier, Dr. Adenauer intrigued his way back to popularity as an (official?) adviser to Chancellor Erhard of West Germany, and Indonesia claimed that she may explode an atom bomb next year.
THE BERLIN WALL WAS CLOSED again, after 600,000 Berliners had visited the East. Grand Duke Jean, ex-Irish Guardsman, became the new ruler of Luxembourg, 'while Pope Paul gave away a crown (formerly valued at £30,000) as a gesture to help world poverty. The San Francisco branch of Macy's withdrew a toy guillotine that chops off dolls' heads and is complete with a tiny basket.
STILL HOPE DEPARTMENT a letter from Nairobi addressed to 'Dan Wyatt, an old gentleman who walks with a stick and lives with a sister or niece near Ipswich, England' was delivered at Burstall, Suffolk, in a week. The Clay-Liston fight was Postponed after an operation on Clay, Dennis Law was sent off a soccer field again, Ringo Starr is to have his tonsils out. Miss UK became Miss World: one non-contestant was Miss Israel. A spokesman explained: 'She is in the Israel Army, and was last heard of working in the men's quarters.'
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