Portrait of the week
Seventeen bodies were found in the Seventeen
of a British Airways helicopter bound for St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly which crashed into the sea a mile-and-a half from its destination. There were six sur- vivors — the two pilots, two middle-aged women and two children. Early suggestions that the crash may have been caused by sea birds were discounted. Transport Minister Tom King rejected calls for a public en- quiry, despite criticisms of safety routines and maintenance of helicopters. Neil Kin- nock, front-runner in the contest for the leadership of the Labour Party, survived a crash on the M4 motorway in which his car was written off. Mr Kinnock, who was returning to his London home from his constituency in South Wales in the early hours, was listening to Brahms on his tape player at the time. 'Somebody up there loves me,' he commented after stepping from the wreckage. Three hundred police from nine counties arrested 50 people in dawn raids all over the country, acting on information from a supergrass concerning robberies, arson, violence and burglaries.
A premature baby, pronounced stillborn by hospital staff, was found to be breathing when the child's grandmother in- sisted on seeing the body at Southport Infir- mary, Merseyside. The baby, weighing only 1lb 13oz, was christened Gemma Louise Baxter, now tips the scales at over 4lb and is said to be 'going from strength to strength'. The General Synod of the Church of England agreed by a two to one majority that divorced people may re-marry in chur- ch, provided they gain the approval of a special panel and of their bishop. The Synod failed to solve the problem of women clergy, but came out heavily in favour of a more restrictive attitude towards abortion, urging that the reform of the present law should become an urgent government priority. The strike which has halted the Financial Times for more than seven weeks appeared to be moving into a new phase, with threats by the management to have the paper printed in West Germany, and the possibility that the striking union, the NGA, could be suspended from TUC membership for failing to observe a mediator's recommendation underwritten by Mr Len Murray. MPs voted themselves a 5'h per cent pay rise, with four similar an- nual instalments to come, after Tory backbenchers reached a compromise with the Cabinet, which had wanted to keep the increase down to four per cent. The Top Salaries Review Board had recommended an immediate 30 per cent rise. The skeleton of a previously unknown species of dinosaur was found by a fossil-hunter in a clay pit in Surrey, after heavy rains had revealed the creature's claw measuring
more than a foot in length and 11/2 inches thick: the find preceded the current heat wave.
ast-West agreement on more civilised international behaviour, in line with the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, was reached by the 35 nations at the Madrid security con- ference. it cannot go into effect until all the countries sign, and Malta was holding up the process. Six people were killed and 62 injured at Orly Airport in Paris by a bomb planted near the ticket desk of Turkish Airlines by Armenian terrorists. Dr Peter Thexton, 29, died on K2 in the Himalayas from 'mountaineer's dread', pulmonary oedema: elsewhere in the Himalayas, three Japanese climbers died on Nanga Parbat.
In the Oval Test, England defeated New Zealand by 189 runs — slight compensa- tion for the dismal record of the British Lions, who were soundly defeated in their final match against the All Blacks. Tom Watson of the US won the British Open at Royal Birkdale, and Alain Prost of France, in a Renault, was the winner of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The Football League finally reached agreement with BBC and ITV on the televising of soccer after
fon*est and toughest negotiation in the history of British sport'. They are to pay £5.2 million for the right to show twenty First Division games live over the next two seasons. The death was announced of former British heavyweight champion Don Cockell, once memorably described by the great A.J. Liebling as 'a fat man whose gift for public suffering has enlisted the sympathy of a sentimental people'. PJP 'Maybe if you bought British Telecom you get the right number.'
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