7 MAY 1988, Page 4

PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

'No, we're not the Poles you're meant to be taxing.' Three British servicemen were killed in IRA car bomb and shooting attacks in Holland; three others were badly injured. The Independent Broadcasting Authority and the Government fell out over the showing of a Thames Television documentary on the recent shooting by the SAS of three IRA members on active service in Gibraltar. The programme was shown despite claims by the Prime Minister that it would constitute 'trial by television'. P&O began sailing two of its ships across the Channel from Dover despite a picket of the harbour by members of the NUS. As the seamen's strike began to spread to other ports the union's assets were seques- trated. The Government announced a £l0() million package of housing benefit conces- sions and succeeded in heading off another Tory backbench revolt. The Prime Minis- ter apparently warned senior Conservative MPs that the Government cannot afford to buy off any other rebellions as the contin- gency reserve fund had been severely depleted in the first month of the financial year. The Secretary of State for Education. Mr Kenneth Baker, in what was seen as a calculated rebuff to the Kingman commit- tee of inquiry, announced that grammar lessons will return to schools this year. In a Department of Employment fraud inves- tigation there were clear indications that one in ten taxi drivers in the West Mid- lands were claiming unemployment and supplementary benefits as well as working. A MORI opinion poll suggested a bleak outlook for the Tories in the forthcoming local government elections. The Science Museum is to introduce compulsory admis- sion charges later in the year. Lord Brock- way, the 99-year-old pacifist and former Labour MP, and Andrew Cruickshank, Dr Cameron in the Dr Finlay's Casebook series, died.

THE Israeli army advanced some 16 miles into south-east Lebanon saying that it was in pursuit of Palestinian guerrillas and their strongholds. In the worst unrest in Poland for six years thousands of workers at the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk went on strike demanding the legalisation of the Solidar- ity independent trade union. Strikers at the Lenin steel mill in Nowa Huta outside Krakow — said to number more than 10,000 — continued their protest now in its second week. Crude oil prices fell sharply after Opec failed to agree on production

cuts. Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the French National Front, called on his sup- porters not to vote for Francois Mitterrand in the forthcoming Presidential elections. The Afghan President, Major-General Na- jib, said that Soviet military advisers would remain behind after the troop withdrawal. He claimed that they had been there 23 years prior to the April Revolution. In the South Korean elections the ruling Demo- cratic Justice Party won only about a third of the popular vote and will fall short of an overall majority in the National Assembly. Mr Mikhail Gorbachev held talks with Patriarch Pimen, head of the Russian Orthodox Church — this was said to be the first time that the leaders of State and Church in the Soviet Union have met formally since Stalin's temporary rap- prochement with the Church during the last war. A Hawaiian Boeing 737 had a large part of its roof ripped off at 24,000 feet; with the loss of only one air hostess the pilot managed to fly 25 miles and land the plane. In New Caledonia, the head of the French anti-terrorist force was cap- tured by Kanak separatists. The sale of Andy Warhol's possessions raised £14 mil-