PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The memoirs of Peter Wright, the ex-MI5 man, went on sale in the United States and copies were flown immediately to Britain. The Government is taking legal action against the Sunday Times, which published extracts from the book. Customs officials at Heathrow informed those bring- ing in the book that they had no instruc- tions to stop them, nor were the books liable for VAT or import duty. Mr Neil Kinnock announced his new shadow cabinet: Roy Hattersley will cover home affairs, Gerald Kaufman foreign affairs, John Smith the Treasury and Bryan Gould the Department of Trade. The Govern- ment showed first signs of moderating its plans for the so-called 'poll tax', unpopular with many of its own backbenchers and described by the Leader of the Opposition as Plantagenet politics'. MPs voted them- selves a 21.9 per cent pay increase against the wishes of the Prime Minister. Mr Robin Butler has been appointed to be Cabinet Secretary following the retirement of Sir Robert Armstrong in the New Year. A police marksman shot dead two armed raiders during an ambush on an abattoir in Plumstead, South London. Mr Jeffrey Archer's libel case against the Star news- paper continued in the High Court. Miss Monica Coghlan claimed that Mr Archer, a millionaire novelist and former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, had spent £70 for 15 minutes with her in a hotel in Victoria. King Hassan of Morocco spent the night at the Grand Hotel in Brighton before travelling by train to London to meet the Queen. Nigel Mansell won the British Grand Prix for the second year in succession. The British ladies correspond- ence chess champion, Ms Leigh Strange, has been exposed as a man, Mr Nick Down.
IT IS now 31 days since Charles Glass, a regular contributor to the Spectator, was seized by gunmen in Beirut. High-level contact between the EEC and Syria is to be resumed following a decision by Britain not to oppose the restoration of diplomatic links. In Washington the congressional committee investigating the Irangate affair continued their questioning of Lieutenant- Colonel Oliver North. Public opinion in the United States swung behind Colonel North: one 'telephone hotline' registered 67,000 calls, 59,000 of them from people applauding him. Bob Hawke won his third successive general election in Australia. A hundred and seventy-four Sikhs were put ashore illegally at the village of Charles- ville, Nova Scotia. The 200 inhabitants awoke to find the new arrivals walking up and down the main street at dawn. The authorities suspect that the Sikhs have in fact come from West Germany. Evidence presented in Washington suggested that ex-President Marcos of the Philippines has a secret cache of gold worth $14 billion hidden somewhere in the United States, equivalent to just over half the Philippines'
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