PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The Queen opened the new Parliament. Seventeen Bills were outlined in her speech from the throne: these included a far-reaching new education bill, proposals to regenerate the inner cities, reform of domestic rates in England and Wales, more privatisations, further trade union legislation, an updating of the copyright laws and liberalised licensing laws (which the British Tourist Authority believes will create 50,000 new jobs). Denis Healey, after 28 years on the Labour front bench, announced that he would not be seeking re-election to the shadow Cabinet. Follow- ing an uncharacteristic period of silence, Dr David Owen, leader of the Social Democrat Party, said that he would not be prepared to join a new merged Alliance party, claiming that it would be the effec- tive annihilation of the SDP. The SDP is to be balloted on merger. The dispute over whether 202 children recently removed from their parents in Middlesbrough had or had not been sexually abused moved into the High Court. Mr Stuart Bell, the local MP, called for the suspension of the two paediatricians most closely involved in the case. He alleged in particular that Dr Marietta Higgs and a social worker had 'colluded and conspired' to keep the police out of the cases. After days of rain, the umbrellas went up again at Wimbledon due to excessive sun. Boris Becker, the men's champion for the past two years, was defeated in the second round by the unseeded Australian player Peter Doohan. Mr Robert Maxwell made an offer to buy the ailing Today, and then withdrew it, whereupon Mr Rupert Murdoch made his own offer. Permission has been granted to Mr John Evans of Swansea to build a bathroom in his house. Mr Evans, who is 109, has been using a lavatory at the end of his garden for the past 98 years.
THERE has been no further news of Charles Glass, seized by gunmen in Beirut on 17 June although it was reported that US intelligence sources had learned that his kidnapping had been ordered by Iran. Following an initially tough response by President Chun to weeks of street fighting in South Korea, the ruling party has submitted to demands for a revision of the constitution, especially to set up direct popular elections for the next president. This was announced by Roh Tae Woo, Chairman of the Democratic Justice Party, President Chun's original nomination as his successor. In Brussels for a Common Market summit meeting, Mrs Thatcher attacked the 'financial mismanagement' of the EEC. Following recent elections in the Soviet Union the 1,500 members of the Supreme Soviet met in Moscow where, during a lengthy speech by the Prime Minister, Mr Nikolai Ryzhkov, Mr Gor- bachev's newly reshuffled Politburo was on public display for the first time. Questions were raised about the position on the dais allocated to Mr Yakovlev, one of Mr Gorbachev's closest allies, at the end of a row at the hack, until it was realised that he has a wooden leg and didn't want people tripping over it. In keeping with the new spirit of 'glasnost' the East German Parlia- ment, the Volkskammer, introduced a period of 'parliamentary questions', the first time since the early 1960s. The Pope angered Jewish leaders throughout the world by formally receiving Kurt Wald- heim, President of Austria, a country 85 per cent of whose population are Catholic.
MStJT
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