Portrait of the Week
Official London prostrated itself to welcome King Khaled, of Saudi Arabia, whose refusal to increase his country's oil prices had led to a $2 reduction in the price of North Sea ail and a run on the pound which sank below the $2 mark for the first time this year. The BBC postponed showing Harold Robbins's film The Pirate in case it offended him, and Mr Edward Heath urged the country to further orgies of deference, saying that His Majesty's goodwill could not be taken for granted. British reaction to the Israeli bombing of a nuclear reactor station outside Baghdad was predictably censorious.
Mr Michael Foot, in a dramatic meeting of the Shadow Cabinet, challenged Tony Benn to stand against him for the leadership ,of the Labour Party, saying that in his judgment this was the only honest course for Benn to take. Mr Benn indicated that he had no intention of doing any such thing, before retiring to hospital with pains in his feet, possibly caused by a viral infection.
Mr Eric Ogden, Labour MP for West Derby, joined the trickle of Labour MPs reppdiated by their constituency association in preference for a Bennite candidate, but angry noises against Mr Benn, his new method of re-selecting MPs and electing the leader and deputy leader, were heard with increasing frequency and bitterness from the Parliamentary Labour Party.
Mrs Shirley Williams, who lost her Labour seat at Stevenage in the general election, declined to fight the Warrington by-election caused by Sir Tom Williams's retirement to the Bench, probably on the grounds that she was unlikely to win this north-country Labour stronghold for her exciting new 'Social Democratic Party'. However, Roy Jenkins announced that he would be prepared to stand in her place. This was seen as a thoroughly sporting gesture, particularly after an Observer National Opinion Poll indicated that the SDP stood very little chance of winning.
Lord Soames repeated that it would be most unfair to award striking civil servants more than 6 per cent when so many less well protected workers in the public sector had settled for that amount. Civil Service unions prepared to delay payments of dole, family allowances and other social security benefits, causing many newspapers not usually noted for their defence of social security scroungers to express grave concern. MPs awarded themselves an 18 per cent pay rise, pointing out that if you did the sums differently it might appear rather less. Sir Peter Parker, chairman of British Rail, caused dismay even among MPs by asking for a 50 per cent pay rise, from /48,000 a year to something over £70,000.
A rampaging gang of coloured youths murdered a white teenager in Thornton Heath, south London, but otherwise race relations remained on an even keel. Two Hell's Angels were acquitted by an Old Bailey jury of attempting to murder PC Philip Olds, paralysed for life from the waist down after being shot when he tried to arrest them for theft, but Judge Skinner sent the youths down for life and 17 years respectively on lesser charges.
Overseas, Miss Sweden, 19-year-old Eva Lundren, denied German claims that she owed tax in Hamburg arising out of earlier employment there as a call-girl. Pravda accused the Polish Communist Party of having lost control, of abandoning a class approach to its problems and of disregarding traditional Marxist-Leninist values. Next, more ominously, it accused the Poles of anti-Sovietism. Finally, a letter from the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party demanded a purge of the party and, most sinister of all, offered its fraternal assistance to the Polish Central Committee in this matter.
Mr Heseltine ordered local government authorities to cut their spending by £450 million or face the consequences. The Times restored pictures to its back page and introduced an 'information service' in place of the rather more interesting advertisements.Four Anglican priests resigned in protest against the ordination of women.AAW
Previous page
