—Portrait of the Week
'ANY MINISTER is honestly wicked,' Sir Keith Joseph was quoted as saying by Hansard. But the Housing Minister asked the Commons' leave to alter the record to his actual words, 'Any Minister is on a sticky wicket.' Mr. Maudling's Budget seemed honestly wicked, putting up the price of beer, whisky and cigarettes, and taxing fixed- odds betting. To this bookmakers retaliated by Changing the general election odds on the Tories t'rom 5-2 to 7-2. But, it was stressed by a rash of pundits sprouting on every TV screen, the Chancellor was just on a sticky wicket, keeping galloping expansion within bounds. Mr. Callaghan said the Budget had deferred a solution of the Country's economic problems until alter the election. The Stock Exchange smiled, and shares had their best day for over a year. Up, too, wil' go busmen's pay—and fares.
M.. R. MACMILLAN decided against taking an earl-' clorn, and refused the Queen's offer of a Garter. The Home Office rejected a request to settle in the UK made by a South African family whose head was over the age limit of sixty-five: when the family had arrived home again the Govern- ment relented, only to find that the Williams lamily was less willing to chance their luck again. Postmen called off their strike and overtime ban, so the Postmaster-General, Mr. Bevins, turned his wrath on Radio Caroline, a pirate radio station operating in the North Sea.
K. IS DEAD': but the Russian leader was not liquidated by any Chinese loyalist but 'killed' by mistake—by a West German news agency that misinterpreted a Japanese agency that misinter- preted a Tass message. In the US, the segrega- tionist Governor Wallace' received one-quarter of the votes in Wisconsin, but the Democratic Convention is unlikely to be affected. France voted against the UK in the Security Council Yule on the Yemen bombing, and General MacArthur posthumously accused Britain of leak- ing Korean War secrets to China. Exchanging his Ploughshare for words, General Grivas met President Makarios to discuss a return to active life, and Cyprus asked for forty British police- men to keep law and order. Mr. Field slipped from power in Southern Rhodesia, the Belgian doctors' strike foundered, East European jamming of the BBC ended, and the Corporation is to sell cultural programmes to Cuba.
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CANON COLLINS, the last major figure in CND, esigned as chairman, to write a book on the Bomb and Christianity. With Christine Keeler nearing the end of her prison sentence for per- jury, Lucky Gordon withdrew his legal actions against Miss Celebrity. The Ferranti electronics firm decided not to oppose any government request for a repayment of any excess profits on a Missile contract. Instant tea is being sold in the North of England, and instant beer may soon go On sale. Mr. Marples was in the wars again, denounced as a liihrer' by Lord Morrison in the Lords, and giving permission for a footbridge in Camberley at the junction of two roads that do not exist in the town.
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THREE FIRST DIVISION soccer stars were suspended from playing, pending inquiries into accusations that they had fixed matches. Twenty youths were fined after the 1964 Mods Ball, and Brighton can- celled its proposed 'beat festival' next month on hearing that, the Mods and Rockers were coming in force. More nuclear power stations were Planned, and the long-range weather forecast said next month could be warm, sometimes.
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