Portrait of the Week
The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer were married after a week in which the bride brought joy to 3,000 disabled people at a Garden Party. And it was learnt that two Buckingham Palace footmen had been charged with possessing 30 sticks of gelignite.
Lady Diana seemed distressed while watching a polo match and withdrew in tears, overcome by the pressure of attention. Anxiety about a leg infection suffered by the Queen Mother proved unfounded. Mr Roy Jenkins was not asked to the wedding, but Mr Peter Beck, the former headmaster of Gordonstoun who caned the Prince on several occasions, was there. Prince Charles said: 'I was one of those people for whom corporal punishment actually worked'. He was criticised by groups opposed to the practice. In Toxteth, Liverpool, the event was celebrated by further riots.
After Britain had advised restraint on Mr Begin, and after Mr Caspar Weinberger, the American Defence Secretary, had rebuked him — although possibly not as a result of either — uneasy peace descended on at least one part of the Middle East. There was still some doubt about whether the precarious cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians included the Lebanese Christians, now collected into a small coastal enclave.
Hunger marches and strikes took place in Poland, protesting against the quadrupling of food prices. Lech Walesa, leader of Solidarity, was reported unwell and the Pope decided to stay in hospital while awaiting a second operation. In New Zealand, the touring South African Springboks team had two matches cancelled after unparalleled scenes of violence and threats of a massacre by an eccentric in an aeroplane. At Lord's, Somerset won the Benson and Hedges Cup against Surrey amid distasteful but unviolent scenes of jubilation.
Mr Tony Benn celebrated an apparent easing of his mysterious illness with a commitment by Labour's National Executive to unilateral disarmament and expulsion of American nuclear bases. The National Executive also approved a commitment to remove Britain from the EEC within a year of winning the next general election. Social Democrats and Liberals won Lambeth from Labour in local elections, and Social Democrats took Hemel Hempstead. The newly radicalised Greater London Council announced rate increases of 120 per cent, mostly to pay for cheaper transport. The Government announced a £700 million plan to ease unemployment among young people, including a £15 subsidy to employers hiring them. for less than £40 a week, and the House of Commons finally voted to make the wearing of seat-belts compulsory.
A shut-down of all gas and electricity was threatened for the winter by four of the more moderate union leaders — Frank Chapple, electricians, Terry Duffy, engineers, Sid Weighell, railwaymen, and David Basnett, municipal workers — in protest against the Government's proposed sale of nationalised assets in the gas industry. British Telecom announced increases of 13 per cent in telephone charges. The IRA agreed they had murdered the wrong man by mistake when they gunned down Mr John Hazlett, a popular house decorator and father of two, in Maghera, County Londonderry. Mr Paul Channon announced a £2 million scheme to award writers 1/2p a time on book borrowings up to a limit of £500 per title. A Welsh pie firm was fined £5,000 for selling horsemeat. A.A.W.
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