Portrait of the Week
The first round of French elections for the National Assembly showed enormous gains by Francois Mitterrand's Socialist party, making it likely that the new President would be supported by his Chamber of Deputies. The result of the Irish elections was less decisive. For several days afterwards nobody seemed sure who, if anybody, had won, owing to the peculiar Irish method of counting. The balance between Mr Haughey's Fianna Fail and the combined forces of Fine Gael and the Labour Party seemed to be held by eight independents, two of them at present in the Maze Prison, one on hunger strike and not expected to live more than four weeks. This was described as a 'hung Dail'.
In Belfast, eight IRA prisoners on remand escaped from Crumlin Road gaol, and the IRA claimed to have made an unsuccessful attempt to murder Lord Gardiner, the former Lord Chancellor, by fastening a bomb on his car. If so, it fell off and nobody noticed.
An unemployed 17-year-old, Mr Marcus Sarjeant, was arrested and charged under the Treason Act 1842 for letting off blank cartridges in the vicinity of the Queen as she rode from the Mall into Horseguards for Trooping the Colour. Various MPs tried to get into the act by proposing repressive measures against the ownership of toy pistols. Mr Andrew Alder, a 21-year-old polytechnic student and former public schoolboy, was arrested at the home of Duncan Goodhew, the bald Olympic swimmer and charged with murdering both his parents in an apparent robbery attempt. Mr Peter Sutcliffe appealed against his conviction for the murder of 13 women.
The House of Lords approved measures in the Transport Bill to make the wearing of seat belts compulsory. Birthday Honours included knighthoods for Mr William Rees-Mogg, the Chief Rabbi and Mr 'Harry' Secombe, the former radio comic.' Philip Toynbee died at 64. Prince Philip celebrated his 60th birthday with some provocative remarks about the unemployed. Speaking on the Jimmy Young Show, he observed that those who had formerly complained about not having enough leisure now complained when they had all they could possibly hope for. 'People don't seem to be able to make up their minds what they want, do they?' The Palace later apologised for these remarks. Clay Cross Council announced that it would be flying a red flag to celebrate the Prince of Wales's wedding on 29 July. Princess Anne and her husband, Mr Mark Phillips, ended much frenzied speculation by announcing that they proposed to call their daughter 'Zara'.
At home, various spokespersons for Mr Wedgwood Berm announced that he would not allow his indisposition to stand in the way of his ambition to become Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. He would be out of hospital within a week, it was said, although advised to rest for six weeks. His illness was variously diagnosed as the Guillain-Barre syndrome, a form of polyneuritis, and arsenic poisoning. A Sunday Times MORI poll claimed that the Social Democrat Party had lost a third of its support. Having commanded 15 per cent support among the electorate on its launching, it now enjoyed 10 per cent, against 35 per cent for the Conservatives and 39 per cent for Labour. The Social Democrats and Liberals reaffirmed their intention to get together. Mrs Thatcher announced that she might still introduce legislation on the closed shop, and repeated her determination to cut government expenditure at the same time as the Government announced a further £550 million assistance to the National Coal Board. Three aircraft carriers may be sold to pay for this. Clive James's poem and theatrical production about Prince Charles continued to be mauled by the critics, and the Suffragan Bishop of Repton, Rt Rev. Stephen Verney, was discovered to have taken a divorced lady as his wife. They were married in a Welsh Baptist chapel. The Dowager Lady Dufferin's former butler resumed his suit alleging wrongful dismissal, to face renewed accusations that he had stolen her Guinness dish-cloths. A A W
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