PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The loner Repercussions from last week's Cabinet reshuffle continued to rumble. In particular, the feeling among Tory back- benchers that Sir Geoffrey Howe had been shabbily treated expressed itself in loud cheers when he made his first appearance before Parliament as Leader of the House and deputy prime minister. The former deputy prime minister, Lord Whitelaw, called the reshuffle 'a ghastly mistake'. Kenneth Baker, the new Party Chairman, replaced Sir Geoffrey in the betting as front-runner to succeed Mrs Thatcher, according to Ladbroke's. Parliament ad- journed for the summer break. The NUR finally called off its programme of strikes against British Rail, though LcindOn tube trains were again stopped on Wednesday; as the dock strike continued to crumble and more dockers drifted back to work those who didn't having been threatened with the sack — it, too, was called off. Share prices again reached the levels they had attained just before the 1987 crash amid increasingly hopeful signs for the economy. One of the oddest of these was the shopping spree of Mrs Aleksandra Biryukova, reportedly the Soviet Union's senior woman politician, who came to Britain to place an order for £100 million worth of toothpaste, soap, razor blades, proprietary medicines, 1.7 milliOn pairs of ladies' shoes and 50 million pairs of tights. She said that the Russian people supported perestroika but wanted to see faster results — including, as striking miners in Siberia recently demanded, something in the shops to buy. Tice Archbishop of Canterbury attempted to persuade the BBC to cancel a programme in support of the Islamic here- tic, Salman Rushdie, on the grounds that it would be damaging to 'community rela- tions'. May to July was the sunniest three- month period in Britain since records began. England lost yet another test match and the ashes to Australia as the announce- ment of a rebel tour to South Africa by 16 of the country's best players seemed to put paid to the future of English international cricket as well. John Ogdon, the pianist, died.
ISRAELI commandos kidnapped Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid, a leader of the Hizbollah in southern Lebanon, in a daring raid, hoping to use him as a bargaining counter -in negotiating for the freedom of Israeli captives in Lebanon. In retaliation, a Lebanese revolutionary group claimed to have hanged an American hostage; Lieute- nant Colonel William Higgins, an act which elicited strongly worded protests from several Western countries and .calls for violent retaliation from Mr Bush's political -supporters in the United States, The President referred to it as 'uncalled-for terrorism'. The Americans reportedly pro- tested against British plans forcibly to repatriate Vietnamese boat people from Hong Kong. In Iran, Mr Rafsanjani was elected president to the aceorripaniment of chants of 'Death to America:. General JaKtizelSki, recently elected President of Poland, resigned as Chairman of the Com- munist Party. In the Soviet Union, greater autonomy was granted to the Baltic repub- lics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; and a pdtential opposition party was set up in the tInter-Regional Group' with Mr Boris Yeltsin as 'Prime Chairman'. The anniversary of the execution of Tsar Nicho- las II and his family by the communists was widely observed by newly-emboldened royalists. In China, executions of student dissidents continued while members of the People's Liberation Army gave a demon- stration of disco-dancing. JVB
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