Portrait of the week
A poor week for Anglo-Soviet relations. Embarrass- ment and accusations abounded in the strange affair of the 'mentally ill' scientist Vladimir Tkachenko, who had been rescued by British police after he had apparently been abdticted by Russian strong-arm men in Bayswater Road, and was then sheepishly handed back. The Russians were furious and Britain stiffly insisted that it was all the Russians' fault. The national attention then turned to the launching of the new Cunard liner, which emerged from Wed- nesday's ceremony with nothing more unexpected for a name, than 'Queen Elizabeth II' in spite of they speculations ranging from 'Queen Anne' to 'White Elephant.'
-hi New York, the United Nations General Assembly opened without much cheer, U Thant sounding warnings about the risk of another war ip the Middle East. America decided to invest WOO million on anti-ballistic missile defences against China, which Britain formally regretted. Mt and Mrs Harold Wilson spent the weekend at Remora!, and Mrs Wilson's Diary reached the Lon- don stage.
Labour trouble hit transport particularly bard in Britain, affecting the trains, the docks, and the motor Industry. Mrs Castle, Minister of Transport, intro- diced a publicity campaign to make sure that Motorists appreciated the severity of the new law on drinking and driving. In Enfield, the row over gm local grammar school's enforced conversion into sr. comprehensive school developed, inter alia, into nasty setback for the accident-prone Mr Gordon Walker. whose intervention on behalf of the Gov- e,rnment was brusquely thrown out by the High Court. The Liberal party held their annual con- ference at Blackpool, calling for an end to the Vietnam war, and, while the Government and Its supporters feared the worst, voters in the Cam- bridge and West Walthamstow by-elections wept to the polls. Sir John Cockcroft, the nuclear scien- tist, died, aged seventy, and the condition of eighty-four years old Lord Attlee. in hospital, was *ported as causing concern.
British Railways decided to close down St Pan- cras station and modernise King's Cross, and Miss Jennie Lee announced that the Open (or rv) Uni- versity would start up in 1970. Yorkshire cricketers liad to cancel a tour of Rhodesia because of 'poll- tkal pressure.' A London motorist was fined a total of £171 for parking offences: but a Southend schoolteacher, who had been accused of assault, be- cause he cut a boy's hair in class, was acquitted.
Previous page
