DIARY OF THE YEAR
Wednesday 27 January: to everyone's surprise 4,000 BOAC engineering employees voted to aban- don their work-to-rule: firemen too called off theirs after the Government announced an in- quiry into their work. It was revealed that-Thos. Cook and Son was definitely to be sold to private enterprise; keen takers were expected. St Bartholemew's hospital reported that successful trials on a male contraceptive pill had been carried out on rats, and tobacconists claimed that cigarette sales had dropped 10 per cent since the Royal College of Physicians' report.
Thursday 28 January: at the stroke of midnight, the first guillotine on the Industrial Relations Bill fell, cutting off Barbara Castle in mid-sen- tence. Prince Michael of Kent, cut off in mid- bobsleigh ride, suffered a fracture of the jaw while practising for the world bobsleigh cham- pionships. A 'critical situation' developed at the factory of Wilkins and Mitchell at Darlaston after eleven men were fined by a kangaroo court for strike-breaking. Major-General Idi Amin, new head of Government in Uganda, today paraded in public with political prisoners he had released—they included an ex-Prime Minister and the sister of the late Kabaka.
Friday 29 January: leaders of fifteen Ford unions today recommended that 50,000 workers at 21 plants should go on strike. They had been offered a 'derisory' offer of 10 per cent. Mr Chataway, Minister of Posts, was mobbed by demonstrators in Reading, and yet another tele- phone call from 'The Angry Brigade' threatened to kill the Under-Secretary at the Department of Employment. England Test opener Boycott apologised for his fit of temper after being given run out. Renault cars finished first, second and third in the Monte Carlo rally.
Saturday 30 January: Sudanese troops, claimed General Amin, were moving into Uganda but like his threatened 'Tanzanian invasion' they
failed to materialise. Responding dramatically to Vic Feather's intervention in the Post Office dispute Mr Carr called on both sides to meet him tomorrow. At the AGM of the Yorkshire Cricket Club, an action group angry at the dis- missal of Brian Close as captain,. succeeded in voting the annual report 'out'. In Mozambique 20 people have so far been found dead in the wake of Cyclone Felice; estimates of 50,000 dead were rejected by the government.
Sunday 31 January: thunderclouds over the Kennedy Space Centre delayed the launching of Apollo 14 and three astronauts on their way to the moon. Mr Carr's attempts to settle the PO strike also met a set-back; both sides remained in deadlock. Reports of an impending South Vietnamese invasion of Laos were intensified as hundreds of us planes bombarded the Ho Chi Minh trail in preparation. Meetings at Ford plants throughout the country indicated that the majority of workers would come out on strike.
Monday 1 February: at the fifth attempt lunar astronauts succeeded in sorting out their dock- ing problems and were given the go-ahead to continue the moon-landing. The three month old colour ban on :Tv screens came to an end as engineers agreed to accept the company's offer. Mr Barber forecast a £600 million surplus for 1970 or 'perhaps more'. Nevertheless the Government refused to provide the £2 million necessary to keep the Velasquez portrait in Britain.
Tuesday 2 February: while police rushed to nos 10 and 11 Downing Street after receiving a threat that both buildings were to be blown up, Swan Hunter threatened to close their yards if the boilermakers' impending strike takes place. At Brussels Common Market discussions closed down for a month, with Mr Rippon giving foreign ministers a firm statement of Britain's position. The AEU gave their full backing to 13,000 members on strike at Fords—but declined to make it official.
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