PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
`Profit! Profit!'
Asettlement of the Wandsworth pris- on officers' dispute was reached after the Home Office stuck to its policy of manning the prison with regular police officers. The Prime Minister delivered a strong rejection of demands for Scottish nationalism, saying that she would have 'no truck' with attempts to break up the United. Kingdom. A private member's Bill proposing a right of reply for victims of inaccurate press reporting won an unopposed second read- ing in the House of Commons. Water companies were told by the Government that they must reconsider their proposals for a 30 per cent price rise, much criticised by opposition politicians, as part of the build-up to the privatisation of the indus- try. The General Synod of the Church of England overturned its earlier decision to guarantee at least 24 of its seats for black members; the measure was attacked as 'all about racial prejudice ... to give "the poor old black man" a leg up'. Mrs Edwina Currie finally agreed to appear before the Agriculture Select Committee to give evi- dence about her warning on the salmonella outbreak in eggs. Sacked P&O seamen celebrated the first anniversary of their picket at Dover's Eastern Docks. Shares in NFC, the privatised worker-owned freight company were launched on the stock mar-
ket; workers who bought shares in a last-ditch attempt to save the company in 1982 have seen their value increase by some 8,000 per cent. British Telecom suspended all telepKone `chatlines', saying the teenagers who had run up huge phone bills using these services had brought the whole company into disrepute. Mr Rupert Murdoch launched his four-channel satel- lite Sky Television service. Mr Austin Mitchell MP was appointed to host a show on Sky and was in consequence dismissed from Labour's front bench by Neil Kin- nock. The Stock Market reached its high- est value since the crash of October 1987. Protesters told Mr Nicholas Ridley, the Secretary of State for the Environment, that there was a danger of developments next to the Royal Opera House turning into a Disney-style theme complex.
AFTER nine years of fruitless interven- tion, considerable loss of life and a failed last-minute effort to secure a face-saving settlement, the Soviet Union withdrew almost all its troops from Afghanistan. The remaining 1,000 soldiers at Kabul airport were expected to go before the weekend deadline, leaving the government of General Najib to its fate. All foreign diplomats left Kabul; the British repre-
sentative said that he thought it would be best if Najib went too. Talks between the Solidarity union movement and the Polish Communist Party leadership began; on the agenda were terms for the legalisatiori of Solidarity and the framework of possible political reform in Poland. Following a successful visit of the Soviet foreign minis- ter, Mr Edward Shevardnadze, to Peking (where some sort of agreement on the future of Cambodia seemed to have been reached) it was reported that Mikhail Gorbachev would himself go to China later in the year. General Alfredo Stroessner, having held power as dictator of Paraguay for 35 years,. was overthrown; he flew to exile in Brazil. His son-in-law, General Andres Rodriguez, took control following a bloody battle in the streets of Asuncion. President Botha stood down as leader of the ruling National Party in South Africa for reasons of ill health. Mr F. W. de Klerk, the education minister, regarded as a representative of the political Right, was elected in his place; it is thought likely that he will take over the presidency in due course. Sir William. Stephenson, the for- mer British secret intelligence chief, known as 'Intrepid', died at the age of 93 and Barbara Tuchman, the historian, at 77.
MStJT
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