Portrait of the week
'The Archbishop of Canterbury entered 1 the miners' dispute: Dr Runcie told the Times that 'unemployment on an unpre- cedented scale, poverty, bureacracy, de- spair about the future of some communi- ties, and inequitable sharing of the sacri- fices called for' cast doubt on the desirabil- ity of the Government's other objectives. The Bishop of Durham turned his atten- tion to Mr Scargill, remarking that he appeared to be a Stalinist Marxist. Mr Scargill reiterated his contempt for the High Court, which gave him another week in which to consider his position then fined him personally £1000, and his union £200,000. One of the two miners who had brought the injunction to have the strike declared illegal had his car forced off the road by another whose occupants threatened to kill him and his children. Five men, among them the secretary of the local NUM branch, have since been charged. Industrial rivet guns were fired from picket lines for the first time, at a horse box and two ambulances. The NCB, the NUM, and Nacods all talked to Acas, with no tangible results. The Labour Con- ference expressed its support for councils which intend to defy the Government's rate-capping measures next year. Mr Kin- nock , who had presumed on his titular authority to make a speech in favour of legailty, was rebuked for this by Mr Bick- erstaffe of Nupe: 'Neil, the question is not "Should we break the law?" but "Which law should we obey?" The president of the Police Federation doubted publicly if the police could work with a future Labour Government; then seemed to regret doing so. Mrs Thatcher called her critics in the Bow Group 'crackers'; them amplified this remark. Unemployment rose to 3.28 mil- lion. Tracie Lamb, a model, sued Time magazine for a million dollars, because, she claimed, the magazine had suggested she was promiscuous and had slept with Prince Andrew.
Senator Paul Laxalt, a close friend of President Reagan, sued for $200 mil- lion a newspaper that had suggested he was involved in an operation to skim off the profits of a Nevada casino. This persuaded CBS television to withdraw a documentary on the subject. The televised debate be- tween President Reagan and Mr Mondale was generally thought a victory on points for Mr Mondale, but aides claimed that since the President had avoided obvious blunders, he had won. A survey revealed that one in five Americans suffers from a mental disorder. This was described by a former president of the American Psychiatric Association as 'a landmark.' Shimon Peres, the new Israeli Prime Minis- ter, arrived in Washington to ask for a billion dollars in additional aid. He had told colleagues before departing that he would not come as a beggar. The CIA announced that the American Embassy in Beirut had been blown up by a group called the 'Party of God', which had used explosives supplied through Syria by Iran. The British Embassy in Beirut was shut down for a security refit. The Iraqis killed six seamen, two of them British, in an Exocet attack on a tanker off Kharg Island. President Marcos and Cardinal Sin abused each other over a protest march which the President wanted to ban, and then; permit- ted. Prime Minister Hawke anrounced an early election in Australia, and is expected to win comfortably. Three of the six Indian fugitives in the British Consulate in Dur- ban left the building to see what would happen. They were immediately arrested. The German embassy in Prague was sealed off by police after more than a hundred East German fugitives camped in the grounds . and demanded political asylum. The biggest supermarket chain in France announced it would give away food to the long-term unemployed.
The Swedish government announced that it would not grant political asylum to refugees from the Lebanon, and pre- pared to send 2,000 back. The first two families to arrive in Beirut were promptly put back on a plane to Stockholm. The Swedish government is now considering its position. A 70-year-old grandmother was given a suspended sentance for attempting to rob a bank with a perfume bottle she pretended was a gun. The Queen was accused of being 'dowdy' and 'bored' on a visit to Canada, but officials pointed out that it was her 15th visit to the former colony. Karpov leads Kasparov 4-0 after nine games. jACB 30 per cent Labour, 35 per cent Tory, 20 per cent SDP, and 15 per cent Don't' Know.'
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