PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The Labour Party established a lead in the election opinion polls of between four and seven points suggesting that it is head- ing for an overall majority. John Major and Neil Kinnock both denied that officials in their parties were to blame for leaking the name of a child whose history was used in an emotional Labour television broadcast about the NHS. Both parties were then found to have aided the press in their search for the name, and the girl's grandfa- ther collapsed with chest pains in Faver- sham. Norman Lamont, the Chancellor, and John Smith, the Shadow Chancellor, clashed over Conservative claims that Labour's manifesto would cost £38 billion and put 12.5p on the basic rate of tax. A Libyan state-owned company bought a stake in the Metropole Hotel chain from Tiny Rowland's Lonrho group. Customs officers seized the biggest haul of cocaine ever found in Britain, worth £150 million about the same value as Colonel Gaddafi's new stake in the British Hotel Industry. Rosemary Aberdour, who posed as a titled heiress and swindled £2.7 million from a hospital charity, was sentenced to four years in prison. A hosepipe ban was imposed in large areas of East Yorkshire due to the worst drought for 150 years, and a ban was ordered in Kent for the fourth consecutive year. John Anderson, a passen- ger with no experience of flying, landed a two seater aircraft at Cardiff after the pilot collapsed at the controls. Pensioners whose money was stolen by Robert Maxwell said they intended to sue for compensation in the European Court of Justice. Pho- tographs showing the Duchess of York with Steve Wyatt, a Texan, were published in Paris Match and subsequently in the British press. Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for best actor for his role in The Silence of the Lambs. The eighth Earl Spencer, aged 68, father of the Princess of Wales, died of a heart attack.
The next issue of The Spectator will be published a day earlier than usual. It will be available in London on Wednesday 8 April, and through- out the country by Thursday 9 April.
THE EEC peace initiative in Bosnia- Hercegovina seemed near to collapse after 40 died in a week of fighting and heavy artillery fire which pounded the Bosnian town of Brod. The United States urged the World Court not to support Gaddafi by issuing an order restraining them from try- ing to bring two men suspected of planting the Lockerbie bomb to their courts. Libya refused exit visas to some Westerners, rais- ing fears that some may be taken as hostages if a UN air embargo is imposed. A state of emergency was declared in Moldo- va as fighting broke out between the Ruma- nian majority and Russian speakers. The German Defence Minister, Herr Gerhard Stoltenberg, resigned in a scandal over the sale of tanks to Turkey. President Mitter- rand appeared to be on the point of dis- missing Edith Cresson, the Prime Minister, in order to restore the popularity of the Socialist party. Percival Paterson succeeded Michael Manley as Prime Minister of Jamaica and head of the People's National Party. David Levy resigned as Foreign Min- ister in Israel, blaming internal rivalries in the dominant Likud party. The Irish gov- ernment proposed that citizens should be free to travel abroad to seek abortions, and that censorship of information on abortion should be lifted. President Bush was urged by his doctor to take more holidays. Mike Tyson was sentenced in Indianopolis to six years in prison for rape. Tens of thousands of Somalians were said to be facing starva- tion in Mogadishu. Journalists and environ- mentalists searched the Black Sea for a pair of Soviet-owned beluga whales, probably trained to track submarines, escaped to Turkish waters. A 76-year-old man who stabbed a penguin to death in Cape Town said he acted in self-defence. SB
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