PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
In his Budget, Mr Norman Lamont intro- duced a new lower rate tax band of 20p on the first £2,000 of income. Mr Kinnock promised to vote against the total package, which will cost £2.2 billion, bringing public sector borrowing up to £28 billion next year. Mr Lamont increased excise duties to put 1 p on a pint of beer, 28p on a bottle of spirits, 13p on a packet of 20 cigarettes and 2.3p on a litre of leaded petrol. Tax on new cars was halved, reducing the price of a Ford Fiesta by £750. After next year the Budget will be in December each year and will also include the Government's spend- ing plans. The Government promised a national lottery with prizes of £1.5 million to raise cash for sports and arts if the Con- servatives win the general election. The Labour Party condemned the announce- ment as electioneering and said they would consider bringing in a national lottery too. Crime was found to have risen by 16 per cent in 1991 over 1990. Alan Amos, Con- servative MP for Hexham, resigned after being arrested and cautioned for an alleged act of indecency with another man on Hampstead Heath. British Telecom said it planned to shed more than 20,000 jobs next year. Mirror Group Newspapers said it will stop pensions for 4,000 former employees of Robert Maxwell's companies. The Com- mons Social Services Committee urged an overhaul of pension law. Gerald Ratner, the former chairman of Ratners whose shares have fallen to 18p from a peak of 290p in 1990, put his house up for sale for £1.7 million. Richard Branson sold his Vir- gin Music group to Thorn EMI for £510 million cash, partly to fund his growing air- line. Cost-cutting was found to have brought London Zoo into surplus for the first time in 20 years and ensured its sur- vival. An accountant was shot in the head in his house on the West Pennine moors in Lancashire. A 12-year-old girl was convict- ed of the manslaughter of a crying child while baby-sitting. The body of a 42- year- old female insurance clerk was found mur- dered near a Surrey railway station. Hun- dreds of computers were hit by the Michelangelo virus, programmed to destroy data on the date of the artist's birth. Eng- land beat Wales at Twickenham to win the Five Nations rugby grand slam for the sec- ond year in a row. Ian Botham, 36, scored a half-century and took four wickets as Eng- land defeated Australia in the cricket World Cup in Sydney. Royal Gait, disquali- fied in the 1988 Ascot Gold Cup, won the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham after another stewards' enquiry. A tramp known as John the Baptist was found dead at the Embankment tube station with £1,500 in small change in his socks.
GOVERNOR William Clinton won most of the Super Tuesday Democratic pri- maries. President Bush had a clear lead over Patrick Buchanan in the eight Repub- lican primaries, although Buchanan attract- ed a sizeable protest vote. The commander of the UN peace-keeping force arrived in Belgrade and Serbian fighters began shelling eastern Croatia again. Around 67 people were reported to have been killed and 208 wounded since the last UN cease- fire began. Washington threatened to con- fiscate the foreign assets of Saddam Hus- sein unless he allowed his long-range mis- sile plants to be destroyed, and there was more talk of possible military action. Mean- while, Iraq was condemned by the UN for its record of murder and torture. In the wake of a massacre of their civilians by Armenians, protesters in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, secured the resignation of their Moscow-appointed communist President, Ayaz Mutalibov. The government of Poland had its economic programme reject- ed by parliament. Mass starvation was pre- dicted across southern Africa because of drought. Support in Italy seemed to be growing for politicians supporting the divi- sion of Italy back into its regions. The Ger- man opposition Social Democrat Party insisted that Germany must vote to approve entry into currency union with the EEC in 1999, rather than entering automatically. Ninety died in a ferry collision near Thai- land. A 14-year-old Irish girl, the alleged victim of rape, had an abortion in England after the Supreme Court in Dublin allowed her to travel abroad. The first ten Aus- tralian Anglican women priests were ordained in Perth. Menachem Begin, the former Prime Minister of Israel, died aged 78. A Texan judge approved the request of a rapist of a 13-year-old girl to be castrated rather than put in prison.
SB
Previous page
