Portrait of the week
audi Arabia reduced its oil production 1.-11by 15 per cent and Britain cut North Sea oil by $4 a barrel, hoping OPEC would follow suit. After the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg had found that it was an infringement of the Conven- tion to chastise schoolchildren without their parents' consent, the British government paid a Scottish schoolgirl of 14 £1,200 in compensation for this indignity. The Na- tional Association of Head Teachers advis- ed its members to keep caning. Hunt followers were urged to boycott the Co-op after the CWS voted to ban all hunting on the 38,000 acres it owns, including some of the finest hunting country in the Midlands. Mr Jeremy Thorpe narrowly survived a vote by council members confirming his ap- pointment as director of the British section of Amnesty International after doubts had been expressed by David Astor, Jill Tweedie and others. He may now face a ballot of Amnesty's 18,000 members.
Inquiries into the Kincora Boys' Home scandal seemed likely to revive inquiries in- to the nine-year-old murder of a youth in Ulster. Meanwhile Ulster prepared for a change in its laws on homosexuality, bring- ing them into line with those of the Imperial Government. An IRA attempt to murder Ulster's Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lowry, failed in Belfast. The 26-hour siege of a hi- jacked Tanzanian airliner at Stansted ended peacefully with no casualties. A 'dirty dozen' of English Cricketers, including Mr G. Boycott, started touring South Africa to general execration but Mrs Thatcher said they were free to do so if they wished.
On the industrial scene, Fords factory at Halewood, Merseyside, closed down yet again after the sacking of a persistent troublemaker. Mr Murdoch extended his deadline to Times employees after indepen- dent directors at Times Newspapers Holdings Limited had refused permission for him to transfer the titles to News Inter- national, while supporting his job cuts. Mr Bruce Page's retirement from editorship of the New Statesman was announced. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company gave its last performance after refusal of assistance from the Arts Council. But it was hoped that something would be rescued by an ap- peal launched by Lord Forte, and Sir William Rees Mogg was appointed chair- man of the Arts Council in place of Mr Kenneth Robinson, a former Labour health minister. A plaque to Dylan Thomas was unveiled in Poets' Corner. Pupils returning to St Saviours primary school, Toxteth, were told there would be no punishment for those who had set fire to a classroom, torn
down ceilings and attacked the staff.
General Jaruzelski was warmly greeted by President Brezhnev on his arrival in Moscow. Greenland voted by a 52 per cent majority of its 32,000 electorate to leave the European Common Market, and Mr Powell once again urged Britons to vote Labour with the same purpose in mind. Fred Mulley was repudiated by his Sheffield constituency for having supported Mr Healey. Sir Ronald Bell died at 67 and Tories wondered whether they could hold his 21,500 majority at Beaconsfield. Tories criticised the sale of Britain's latest aircraft carrier, Invincible, to Australia, for £175 million. The SDP leader of Islington Coun- cil was beaten up by a crowd of Labour councillors, social workers and others out- side a children's home. Mr Nigel Lawson promised to inquire into his reasons for sell- ing the Amersham chemical firm £25 million too cheap. Mr R. Holmes a'Court's £36 million takeover of Lord Grade's Associated Communications Corporation was halted by the Appeal Court.
The Pope appealed for peace in El Salvador. Mr Mugabe said that Joshua Nkomo would be arrested and tried for plotting civil war in Zimbabwe. Mr Begin told Chancellor Schmidt to 'fall on his knees in sight of the Jewish ghetto and ask forgiveness'. A Royal Commission in Australia accused Australia's largest dockers' union of crimes ranging from tax evasion and' wholesale corruption to murder. Russia continued to sell oil and gold cheap to buy grain from Argentina.
Lord Scarman contradicted a senior police officer's assertion that his report discouraged the police from action against muggers. A Welsh rugby player, J. P. R. Williams, won £20,000 from the Daily Telegraph which had described him as a `shamateue . Lady Lucan was taken to hospital after an apparent suicide attempt, Liz Taylor celebrated her 50th birthday in a London nightclub amid rumours that she might be planning to marry Richard Burton for a third time. Mrs Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper, was granted a judicial separation because of her husband's 'unreasonable behaviour' . AAW was wondering if you would let me out to play cricket in England.'
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