Portrait of the week
In what was hailed as the Ty-election of the Century' at Glasgow Hillhead, Mr Roy Jenkins was returned to Parliament after beating the Conservative candidate by nearly 2,000 votes and forcing Labour into third place. Shirley Williams hailed him as the natural leader of the Social Democrat Party and Liberal Alliance (SODPAL), while Mr Steel indicated that he would be happy to serve as Leader of the House in a SODPAL government of the future.
Elections in El Salvador were more troubled, with Marxist terrorists seeking to dissuade voters from polling as President Duarte, the American 'progressive' nominee, faced various right-wing factions campaigning on a law-and-order ticket. The right-wing factions won nearly 60 per cent of the vote. The coup in Guatemala return- ed a 'born-again' Christian in General Efrain Rios Montt. The leader of the coup in Bangladesh, Lieutenant-General H. M. Ershad, a soldier, claimed to be disturbed by the country's social, political and economic bankruptcy. After Britain had sent an ice-breaking survey ship to frighten away some Argentinian scrap merchants who were said to have raised the Argenti- nian flag in South Georgia, Argentina sent two missile-carrying frigates and a patrol ship. The British Government indicated that it was prepared to use force.
President Brezhnev, taking advantage of strained Sino-American relations over Taiwan, called for a return to normal rela- tions between China and the Soviet Union, but his proposals met a cool response from China. Nigeria announced a moratorium on all imports (which would cost Britain £250 million of business) and Saudi Arabia threatened a general OPEC oil embargo unless the West continued to buy Nigerian oil at the OPEC price of $34 a barrel, against the North Sea price of $31. Israel responded to PLO agitation on the West Bank by sacking two Palestinian mayors, and France proceeded with tests in the South Pacific towards the development of a neutron bomb.
Mr Tebbit said he was thinking of an amendment to the Employment Bill which would make secret strike ballots compulsory. Striking baggage handlers at Heathrow denied that they were responsible for sabotage to loading equipment. Metal Box shed 1,200 workers in Manchester, Leicester and Monmouth. An OECD report showed that living standards in Britain had slipped still further behind other EEC in- dustrial countries, and the Queen started cutting down on Royal expenses as she fac- ed a third annual deficit to be made up from her private fortune. Mr Whitelaw responded to criticisms about his handling of law and order with proposals for a Police Bill which would give extensive powers to stop and search and enter houses without a warrant. Prosecu- tion allegations in a trial of former civil ser- vants in the Property Services Agency hinted at a large network of corruption. Ken Livingstone criticised the appointment of Sir Kenneth Newman as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police on the grounds that he would alarm black Londoners. A Gallup poll commissioned by Universe in- dicated that one in eight Britons disapprov- ed of the Pope's visit, 50 per cent supported it. The Vatican responded to a joint Church of England-Roman Catholic report on the prospects for union between the two chur- ches by saying that it had broken no new ground. Vandals set fire to the High Altar in Salisbury Cathedral.
ritish test-tube twins were born in LI Canada. Belvoir Vale was reprieved from development as a coal extraction area. Aintree seemed likely to be saved for the Grand National after a £7 million appeal from the Jockey Club. All 26 members of Britain's governing council of Amnesty In- ternational resigned after a vote of no con- fidence arising from their appointment of Jeremy Thorpe as national director.
The Common Market, on its 25th birth- day, faced disarray after a cool French response to British demands for a lower rate of contributions. One of its founders, Pro- fessor Walter Hallstein, died at 80. The Canada Bill received Royal Assent after curious scenes in the House of Lords at which one earl was prevented from speak- ing, another was accused of using his bot- tom for this purpose. The IRA responded to a claim by Ulster's Chief Constable that recent arrests had broken them by murder- ing three soldiers in west Belfast, and Ox- ford won the Boat Race for the seventh year
`Pass it on, the Governor of the Bank of England says the recession is over.'
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