Portrait of the week
president Reagan announced a research programme into a missile defence system in outer space, using satellites and , lasers to destroy earth-launched rockets, quickly dubbed as his 'Star Wars' strategy. Soviet leader Yuri Andropov responded by accusing the President of jeopardising the safety of the world, adding that the charge that the Russians were ahead in the arms race was an impudent lie. British aid to relieve famine in Ethiopa is to continue, despite charges that consignments of grain from the West have been used to feed the Ethiopian army, or sent straight on to the Soviet Union in exchange for arms. In France, an austerity programme aimed at reducing a huge overseas trade deficit limits French holidaymakers going abroad to an allowance of 2,000 francs (£190), with half that amount for children. As a conse- quence, there were warnings that French holiday resorts would be somewhat crowd- ed this year, fears that the travel trade would be ruined, and charges that the restriction was a breach of the Helsinki agreements. Prime Minister Mauroy also announced a compulsory ten per cent loan to the State by all but the lowest-paid, repayable without interest in three years, and a further one per cent levy to balance the country's social security fund. In pur- suit of the same objective, the US Congress agreed that the retirement age for Americans should be raised to 67. In Bri- tain, a survey by the Conferation of British Industry discerned signs that economic recovery is picking up, though not for ten- nis stars Virginia Wade and Mark Cox, whose Lloyd's underwriting syndicate has been forced to close down, leaving its members with a bill for £30,000 each to fund underwriting mistakes, nor pop singer Elton John, who lost £56,000 in a burglary. And if higher spending has assisted the recovery, some of the credit must go to football pool winner Peter Gidley, who claimed to be broke just nine weeks after winning £25,000. His mother said that some of the money went on buying her a cuddly tiger, a cuddly gorilla and a cuddly elephant.
Amid angry protests by the Labour
opposition, a few Tories and Arthur Scargill, the government confirmed that Mr Ian MacGregor, 70, nicknamed the 'Mad Axeman' for his rundown of steel industry labour, is to be the new chairman of the Na- tional Coal Board. Dismissing criticism of the £1.5 million 'transfer fee' paid to Mr MacGregor's American firm for his ser- vices, Energy Secretary Nigel Lawson pointed out that the coal industry is losing that amount each day. Production of British Leyland's new car, the Maestro, was halted by a strike by 3,000 workers at the
Cowley plant objecting to the loss of three minutes allowed for washing at the end of each shift. The strike at Ford's Halewood plant continued. The House of Lords ruled that a Sikh boy attending a public school was entitled to wear a turban. The Suf- fragan Bishop of Shrewsbury declared that he is prepared to go to prison if the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill becomes law, and should police attempt to search his premises. The Rt Rev Leslie Lloyd Rees, one of 55 bishops who have protested against the Bill is a former Chaplain General of Prisons. MPs belonging to the Social Democratic Party held an inquest in- to the showing by their candidate in the Darlington by-election, where he came a poor third behind Labour and Conser- vative. Complaining that by-elections were no longer quiet affairs, the SDP candidate chosen for the forthcoming Cardiff North- West by-election resigned, citing high blood pressure.
rrraitor Anthony Blunt died in London, 1 only days after his fellow-conspirator Donald Maclean died in Moscow. Blunt, a former Keeper of the Queen's Pictures, was stripped of his knighthood following his ex- posure in 1979 as the 'Fourth Man' NO°, aided the escape of Maclean, Burgess alto Philby. He was 75. The death was also an- nounced of ex-King Umberto of Italy, who had been seeking to return to his country on compassionate grounds: he bequeathed the Holy Shroud of Turin to the Vatican. This week also marked the deaths of author Constantine Fitzgibbon and wartime com- mander General Sir Terence Airey. While the row over the return to Romania of fugitive Stancu Papusoiu continued, six Polish defectors were said to be in hiding HI Britain, fearful that a similar fate might wonder who orchestrating that?'
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