Portrait of the week
An intruder who broke into Buckingham Palace and spent ten minutes with the Queen in her bedroom provided the nation with an unexpected glimpse of royal life behind the scenes. Mr Michael Fagan, 30, unemployed, entered the Palace by brushing aside some pigeon wire and open- ing a window. In a series of revelations, mainly in the Daily Express, readers learnt that Mr Fagan had broken into the Palace before; that some of the policemen sup- posedly guarding the Queen had recently been found paddling in a goldfish pond; that the police officer supposed to be sitting on a chair outside the Queen's door had been found upstairs in bed with a maid; that when the Queen pressed a 'panic but- ton' there was no response; that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh had used separate bedrooms since 1949; that Mr Fagan was eventually removed by a chambermaid after the Queen had left the room saying that she was going to get some cigarettes for Mr Fagan; and that the of- ficials who controlled the royal household prided themselves on its informal at- mosphere. There were calls for the resigna- tion of the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary, the Commissioner of
Metropolitan Police, the Lord Chamberlain, the Controller of the Household, the police Commander in charge of Royal security, the senior police inspector at Buckingham Palace, or possibly one or two 'middle-aged' police of- ficers on duty.
'There were tumultuous scenes of 1 welcome in Southampton when the S.S. Canberra carrying 2,500 Royal Marines back from the Falkland Islands docked safely. One of the commando of- ficers revealed that he and his men, while engaged on a night operation, had heard voices which they assumed to be talking Spanish. They had lain motionless for an hour before discovering that the 'voices' belonged to a flock of penguins. Lord Mat- thews, chief executive of Cunard, confirm- ed that the replacement ship for the Atlan- tic Conveyor which was sunk by Argenti- nian missiles was likely to be built in Japan or Korea. Amid growing speculation that several Victoria Crosses had been recom- mended for those engaged in the Falklands fighting, the V.C. won by Sergeant William Speakman during the Korean War was sold at Sotheby's for £20,000. The Dean of St Paul's rejected suggestions that the Lord's Prayer might be said in Spanish at the Na- tional Service of Thanksgiving to Mark the End of the Falkland Conflict. In the House of Commons government whips blocked the progress of a Bill which would have
conferred full British citizenship on about 400 Falkland Islanders.
In Madrid, Italy won the World Cup, beating West Germany 3-1. This victory cause further tumultuous scenes all over the world, wherever two or three Italian people were gathered together. In Naples joyful gangsters were reported to have fired their pistols in the air and by midnight police an- nounced that scores of people had been in- jured in traffic accidents. The fountains in Trafalgar Square overflowed with waiters from the nearby restaurant district of Soho. In Pamplona, young men who had taken part in the annual bull run fled in panic before a lion which had escaped from a cir- cus. At the Oval, England achieved a bor- ing draw in the Third Test against India, thereby winning the rubber.
International criticism of the Israeli inva- sion of Lebanon mounted as more details became known. The Times speculated that the Israelis were withholding news of their own casualty figures, and then listed the ways in which the Israeli military censor was able to tamper with American televi- sion film showing civilian casualties of the Israeli bombardment of West Beirut. Television film of infants bleeding to death at the Barbir Children's Hospital was sent to Tel Aviv with Israeli encouragement and then censored 'for security reasons'. A false denial by Mr Begin, the Israeli prime minister, that his forces were withholding food, water and electricity from the beleaguered part of the city was promptly attributed to the fact that for the first time Western reporters were being allowed to work freely behind the Arab lines. In Lon- don, the British Medical Association an- nounced at its annual conference that it would campaign for the abolition of profes- sional boxing. The week long strike by the ASLEF rail union continued. The General Synod of the Church of England refused to approve the covenant of unity with the Nonconformist Churches. The death occur- red of the popular actor Kenneth More.
PHM `I've been to London to visit the Queen it's dead easy!'
Previous page
