PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The Socialist Circus, Blackpool 1990 At the beginning of the Labour Party conference, polls suggested the party was more electable than it had been for 20 years. Neil Kinnock stressed the import- ance of education in Labour's plans for the Nineties, and warned that no tax cuts were likely. Delegates voted for a large increase in old-age pensions, though the leadership said it was not financially possible. The Prime Minister called on business leaders and commentators to stop talking the country into an economic crisis. The Direc- tor General of Fair Trading cleared oil companies of the charge of profiteering on the Gulf crisis. Two Irishmen were arrested near Stonehenge in connection with recent IRA attacks in Britain. An IRA bomb at the Royal Overseas League club in central London was discovered before it could kill William Waldegrave, Foreign Office minister. Two teenage joy riders in a stolen car were shot dead by paratroopers in Belfast after the car drove through a security checkpoint. A rise in car thefts and burglaries helped send crime figures up by a record 17 per cent. A gunman wounded a 53-year-old queueing for a reggae concert in Brixton, south London. More than 550 soldiers on Salis- bury Plain are to have poll tax deducted from their wages after refusing to pay. Dr Sachida Prasad was aquitted of the rape of an 18-year-old woman. Hertfordshire police searched for a scruffy-looking man seen with Simon Jones, a missing four- year-old. Laura Ashley announced it is to close seven factories, with the loss of 1,500 jobs. The Institute of Policy Research, a Labour Party think tank, recommended that fathers should have ten days' leave after their children's birth, and both men and women should have a right to five days' paid leave a year for family reasons. A campaign was launched to change the image of the earwig, a harmless, gentle and monogamous insect which eats greenfly.
THE reunification of Germany was for- mally recognised, and duly celebrated, though Willy Brandt, former Chancellor, said he would not be drinking champagne. An East German minister and an MP resigned after admitting they had worked for the Stasi secret police. It was announced that British troops in the Gulf would operate alongside US Marines under US tactical control. The Soviet defence minister denied rumours that the army was plotting a coup. The CIA re- ported that Iraq will soon be able to use germ warfare. US marines rehearsed the invasion of Kuwait. Iraq said it would not allow two British diplomats from the embassy in Kuwait to return to Britain. Britain and Iran restored diplomatic rela- tions. The Palestine Liberation Organisa- tion said the Soviet Union was no longer its friend. Israel distributed gas masks to its citizens. Japan offered to pay compensa- tion to North Korea for its period of colonial rule there. Japanese troops are to be allowed overseas on international peace-keeping exercises. A Chinese Boeing 737 crashed at Canton airport, killing at least 127 people, after a hijacker's bomb exploded on board. A ceasefire in Liberia collapsed. Sri Lankan government troops abandoned their fight to reclaim Jaffna's fort from Tamil Tiger rebels. Three Indian students and a police inspec- tor were shot dead in riots over proposals to reserve half of government jobs for those of lower caste. Forty Muslim prison- ers were released by Israeli militiamen in southern Lebanon. French farmers hijack- ed 545 British sheep while French police stood and watched. In California new regulations were approved to improve the air by making exhaust emission standards stricter, and encouraging electric cars. Judge David Souter was confirmed as a justice of the United States Supreme Court. The last of the Indians involved in a Mohawk rebellion over a planned golf course in Canada surrendered. American scientists revealed that migratory birds have the equivalent of compasses in their nostrils.
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