PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The morning after As the day of the general election drew close, the polls suggested that sup- port for the Conservatives had remained firm and steady — at 40-45 per cent throughout the campaign. Labour's show- ing — at 30-35 per cent — had also held up well, leaving the Liberal/SDP Alliance very little time for its much awaited recov- ery. The major parties boosted the re- venues of daily newspapers by taking out a considerable number of full-page adver- tisements. Mrs Thatcher's attendance at the economic summit in Venice was casti- gated by Mr Neil Kinnock as 'just long enough for a sandwich, a sermon and a photo-session'. Airports, docks and benefit offices throughout the United Kingdom were severely disrupted due to industrial action by the two major civil servants' unions. Conservative Party leaders said that this was a warning of the chaos that could be expected if a Labour government were to come to power. Mr Norman Tebbit accused Mr Kinnock of dodging the strike by flying from Birmingham into RAF Northolt instead of a civil airport. Teachers also stepped up their industrial action, closing schools in half the country's educa- tion authorities. Mr Denis Healey denied using four-letter words when walking out of TV-AM's studios after being questioned about a private hip operation for his wife, Edna. An unemployed labourer from Newark killed himself by hammering two five-inch nails into his head. The coroner said that it was the first such case of its kind on record.
BRITAIN ordered the closure of the Ira- nian consulate-general in Manchester and expelled five Iranian diplomats, including one against whorri shoplifting charges had been brought. The Iranians retaliated by expelling five British diplomats from Teheran including Mr Edward Chaplin who earlier had been abducted and beaten up by the authorities. President Reagan threatened action against Iran if she instal- led land-based anti-ship missiles on the Straits of Hormuz. Oliver North's secret- ary Fawn Hall told the Iran-Contra hear- ings in Washington that she did not believe her 'dream boss' had ever acted without the knowledge of his superiors. Following the turning back of a flotilla of Indian fishing boats by the Sri Lankan navy, the Indian air force dropped food and medi- cines on the Jaffna peninsula as, in their words, a 'mission of mercy'. The Sri Lankan foreign minister, Mr A. C. S. Hameed, called it a 'naked violation of our independence'. The deposed Fijian Prime Minister flew unannounced to London hoping to have a meeting with the Queen: he was told, however, he would only be able to meet her private secretary. On his third official visit to his native Poland, Pope John Paul attacked Marxism as in- herently dehumanising. A full week after a young German pilot flew across the Soviet Union and landed a small plane in Mos- cow's Red Square, the news agency Tass announced the event to the Russian peo- ple. It spoke of a sinister conspiracy to undermine Soviet confidence. Open-air pop concerts in West Berlin caused rioting amongst East German youths who had gathered to listen to them in Unter den Linden across the Berlin wall. They sung the 'Internationale' and chanted 'The wall must go'. Andres Segovia, the great clas- sical guitarist, recently ennobled as Mar- quis of Solobreria, died in Spain.
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