PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Heavy bombardment The Conservative Party elected a new leader; the second ballot had given Mr Kenneth Clarke 64 votes, Mr William Hague 62 and Mr John Redwood (who then had to drop out) 38. Mr Michael Hes- eltine, the former First Secretary of State, said: 'I have more or less got off the train. You have to, in the end, face up to this in public.' Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, was pleased when his fellow heads of gov- ernment at the European summit at Ams- terdam accepted that Britain (and Ireland) should continue to control their own bor- ders 'as they consider necessary'. An Irish Republican Army gunman killed two policemen in Lurgan, Co. Armagh; the British government cancelled a meeting between officials and members of Sinn Fein. Mr John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, was embarrassed after leaving around papers showing he had sought advice on the possible privatisation of Lon- don Underground. Mr Michael Foster, the Labour Member for Worcester, persisted in his plan to introduce a Private Member's Bill to outlaw hunting with hounds, despite being warned by Labour whips not to rock the boat; hunt supporters are to hold a rally in Hyde Park on 10 July. Mr David Hock- ney, the painter, was appointed a Compan-
ion of Honour in the Queen's Birthday Honours. Sir Colin Cowdrey, the cricketer, was made a life peer; Cleo Laine, the jazz singer, was appointed DBE; Mr Peter O'Sullevan, the racing commentator, was among the new knights. Shares in the NatWest group lost 5.2 per cent of their value in a day after Mr Martin Owen, its head of investment banking, resigned and the bank warned investors that profits were falling. The model Naomi Campbell was taken to hospital in the Canary Islands after what she called an allergic reaction to antibiotics.
FRANCE and Germany cobbled together a form of words that enabled them to agree at the Amsterdam summit of European Union leaders to monetary union by 1 Jan- uary 1999. Euro coins were put on show with the British Isles in the centre and the Iberian peninsula apparently turned into an island in the Atlantic. The other items at the summit were dealt with inconclusively: there was no agreement on a unified defence policy or on a general overhaul of the treaties governing the European Union. Prince Norodom Ranariddh, a joint Prime Minister of Cambodia, told reporters that Pol Pot, the Marxist former dictator who killed hundreds of thousands of his people, was on the run after killing Son Sen, his former defence minister. In the Republic of Congo fighting continued between the forces of General Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the former dictator, and President Pascal Lissouba; the French prepared to withdraw from Brazzaville and let them get on with it after evacuating foreigners. Mr Franjo Tudjman was re-elected as the President of Croatia; international observers said the election was free but not fair. Seven refer- endums held by Italy were declared invalid after fewer than the necessary 50 per cent of voters turned out; the questions included changes in the law on shooting, appoint- ments held by judges and exemption from military service. Marxist rebels of the Revo- lutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) set free 70 soldiers who had been held hostage for more than nine months in exchange for the Colombian army pulling out from an area in the southern half of the country larger in area than Lebanon. In an attempt to collect billions of rupees in unpaid electricity bills, the Pakistan govern- ment threatened to cut off millions of cus- tomers, including state-owned agencies. CSH
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