Portrait of the Year
1962 ENDED wan A WHIMPER, after the bang misfired. The United States was provoked into discovering its own strength and used it to edge Khrushchev out of Cuba. The Central African Federation died a quiet death, in spite of Lord Salisbury screaming true-blue murder. Squab- bling in the Congo remained almost as ever- lasting and gossipy as Coronation Street: except for one deadlock apiece, negotiationsin Geneva and Brussels never closed. The United Nations remained vastly in debt, and Lord Russell was almost expelled from the Labour Party for being six shillings in debt—until Transport House realised he had in fact Paid his subscription until his 110th birthday. Mr. Macmillan linked one of President Ken- nedy's advisers to Hitler, Napoleon, Philip II, and Hengist and Horsa, but English pride was hurt far more when the English football team in the World Cup was described as `a lot of old women.'
1962 WAS A YEAR OF RIOTS, revolts and revolu- tions. Riots in Belgium, France, Spain, South Africa, Oxford, Mississippi (the American home of lost causes) and among our troops on the Rhine. Revolts in Brunei, Aden, Oman and Senegal. Revolutions in the Yemen, Algeria (suc- cessful at last), the Dominican Republic and the Argentine. Lord Dalton, Lord Birkett, Charles Laughton, Adolf Eichmann, William Faulkner, 0. H. Elliott, the independent deterrent, and Eugene Goossens died: Krishna Menon, Sir Edgar Whitehead, Sir Hugh Foot, Herr Strauss, and one-third of the British Cabinet lost jobs: the OAS and M. Debre faded away, as did the Hovercraft. Selwyn Lloyd and Colin Jordan.
THE. PAY PAUSE GAVE WAY to the guiding light, Whichh :gist gave way. 1962 was the year of Orpington. though it began with talk of a Lib-Lab pact, by the end a Lib-Tory pact was rn„ ore possible--but no party was in the mood for suicide pacts. The Government bought the Leonardo cartoon for the nation, as the nation clearly wouldn't buy the cartoon for itself. Ketorm was in the air: the TUC, under George Woodcock, began a massive examination of con- science by denouncing the Government's imposed _National Incomes Commission. Mr. Geoffrey Lawrence was made head of NIC at a salary of
per year, and its first task was to decide
"was right that building workers should have Of w. ork for only forty hours a week (instead ...!..torty-two) to earn £14. Also due for reform
the House of Lords: by the next election it may be
in- terest ;_ possible for peers to renounce all in- , "" the Upper House and to fight elections. _ ,`9r. 300 years the Army became a force in Z1;11" again, fighting by-elections instead of War office After one battalion had disappeared, the office, ee decided our commitments to NATO -"Id not allow such decimation of our troops. SOMEONE MADE A FILM out of Lolita, and some- one Made a fool out of the public-opinion polls, Whose failure to take last-day judgmentsmade nonsense
Report on
of their predictions. The Pilkington television made ears burn: at first thC Government rejected its findings, but after nl. II. eh thought accepted half. Lord Snowdon lonied the Sunday Times and Courtaulds almost Joined ICI. The Bank of England announced that 172 million farthings, no longer legal tender, remained unaccounted for. Floyd Patter- son lost his heavyweight championship to Sonny 1.-iston after two minutes, but Gordonstoun won Prince Charles. Saddest remark of the year: Lord Beaverbrook to the Shawcross Commission 0fl the Press--`My Empire policy has gone down the drain:
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