Portrait of the week
At the Labour Party's annual con- ference, the left wing suffered a set- back when five supporters of Anthony Wedgwood Benn were defeated in the elec- tions to the national exeuctive. Earlier the conference had given Michael Foot the authority to expel members of the left-wing Militant Tendency movement from the party. The Day of Action, which had been organised by the TUC, attracted con- siderable support. Hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike, mainly in the public sector. An inquiry was announced into the deaths of four people who had been taken to hospital in makeshift ambulances after ambulancemen in various parts of the. country had refused to answer even emergency calls. Ambulancemen in some parts of London defied their union and did agree to answer emergencies. They were able to save several lives, including that of a young girl who needed heart surgery. Their action was later condemned by their col- leagues who went on a further five-hour strike in protest, once again refusing to pro- vide even emergency cover. Dr Robert Ed- wards, a biologist, who pioneered the 'test tube baby' technique, disclosed that he had been conducting experiments on human embryos superfluous to his requirements. This information caused the British Medical Association to advise doctors to refuse to supply Dr Edwards with embryos in the future. Dr Edwards then denied that he had been conducting experiments after all, and the BMA lifted its ban.
Mr Begin finally succumbed to intensive Israeli and international pressure and agreed to set up a statutory inquiry into the massacre of Palestinian civilians in Beirut. It was widely suspected that such an inquiry might lead to the resignation of the Minister of Defence, Ariel Sharon. In his own defence Mr Sharon claimed that Israeli of- ficers had been involved in another massacre of Palestinians in Lebanon in 1976, which had taken place under the previous Labour administration and had passed off without protest. Contrary to its agreement with President Reagan, the Israeli government did not completely withdraw its forces from Beirut, and US marines were ordered not to land to join the international peacekeeping force until they had done so. French and Italian troops moved into some areas vacated by the Israelis and it was discovered that Israeli troops had been looting the Moslem centre of the city. The duty free shop at the airport had been ransacked and a computer book- ing system had been removed. Elsewhere a Catholic chapel had been broken into and property stolen. In Mecca Saudi Arabian
troops were deployed against Iranian pilgrims who were chanting slogans in sup- port of the Ayatollah Khomeini. In Hong Kong Mrs Thatcher declared that Britain had a moral responsibility towards the peo- ple of Hong Kong in the face of Chinese determination to resume sovereignty over the colony. The Hong Kong Stock Ex- change then fell 84 points.
In India Mrs Gandhi, the prime minister, returned from an official visit to the Soviet Union to hear that four close associates of her daughter-in-law had been arrested on charges of murder. Michael Fagan, the man who broke into the Queen's bedroom, was found not guilty of trespass, burglary and theft, although he cheerfully admitted all the facts of the prosecution case. Plans were announced to send 500 Falklands war widows on a cruise to the South Atlantic so that they could visit their husbands' graves. Lloyd's suspended the highest paid man in Britain — £320,000 a year underwriter Ian Posgate — following allegations of irregularities which Mr Posgate denied.
In America the Woolworth chain closed down 336 of its discount stores following losses of $325 million in the current quarter. In Holland soldiers were given permission to wear earrings to go with their hair nets. In Bucharest an alcoholic horse was evicted from the flat of a carter. In Salford 700 people were evacuated from their homes after a chemical store exploded, releasing a cloud of corrosive powders over much of the town. The Royal Artillery regiment discharged a gunner who had joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Ac- cording to a government survey the favourite reading of British 11-year-olds were Enid Blyton's books and the comic Beano. In Liverpool a girl who was walking her dog on the electric rail lines was elec- trocuted. Her Dobermann Pinscher surviv-
Blackpool Illuminations
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