PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
`She wouldn't wait while they dithered between a tunnel and a bridge.'
reparations for the Geneva summit accelerated, President Reagan telling the Russians in a direct radio broadcast that the United States did not, and never would, threaten their nation, and Mr Gor- bachev publishing for American consump- tion his book A Time for Peace. The Princess of Wales, accompanied by her husband, visited America. She was wel- comed with rapturous enthusiasm, and was reported to have danced with several show business celebrities at a White House banquet, but the official photographs of the occasion showed the royal couple exclusively in the company of the Reagans. Familiarity did not prevent Mr Reagan from calling the Princess `David', and then, correcting himself, `Diane'. Every judge and magistrate in Colombia was expected to resign in protest at the government's recovery of the Palace of Justice, using cannon and rockets, from M-19 guerrillas who had seized it and taken 60 hostages. Twelve members of the Supreme Court were among 100 people killed in what turned out to be a 28-hour battle. Millwall soccer supporters declared war on visiting Leeds United followers, paralysing a sec- tion of south-east London and then pelting police inside the ground with bricks and planks. The day before, an unprecedented sentence of life imprisonment for soccer hooliganism — technically a common law charge of riot — was given to Kevin Whitton, 25, a Croydon tiler and Chelsea supporter. Four men and two women were arrested in connection with two bombs found outside Chelsea Barracks.
THE Chancellor of the Exchequer made an optimistic `autumn statement' to the Commons. He said inflation would fall, growth continue, the Government would spend more on roads, the NHS etc, and that there would be tax cuts in the spring. Mr Brian Sedgemore, a Labour MP, was suspended from the Commons because he refused to withdraw allegations that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been guilty of `the most serious form of dishon- ourable conduct imaginable' in his hand- ling of the Johnson Matthey scandal. Mr David Waddington, a Home Office minister, recommended parental flogging for Manchester University `badheads' who punched and spat at him while he was trying to explain immigration policy. Gary Kasparov, 22, beat Anatoly Karpov to become the youngest ever World Chess Champion. Mr Robert Maxwell warned the print unions that without radical re- forms his newspaper group might lose £20 million in a year. He then issued a libel writ against the Sunday Times for saying much the same thing. Lord Stockton compared privatisation with selling off family silver; Mr Peter Walker replied that the Govern- ment was rescuing the silver from politi- cians and returning it to its rightful owners. A French divorce court ruled against finan- cial compensation for a woman's loss of virginity during an unsuccessful marriage- Mrs Soraya Khashoggi, another divorcee, accused her chauffeur of helping himself to £100,000 of her property including `►AY dear frocks' which he then wore to parties. They had not had an affair, she said, as he was homosexual, and a chauffeur. WRC
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