PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
TV Times The 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was dissolved. The general election campaign got under way with the publica- tion of the manifestos of the three main political parties: Britain United: The Time Has Come for the Liberal-SDP Alliance; Britain Will Win for Labour; and The Next Moves Forward for the Conservatives. The opinion polls suggested that the Tories enjoy a comfortable lead at the beginning of the campaign. The London stock market registered another all-time high. Mr Har- vey Proctor was fined £1,450 for four offences of gross indecency. Unemploy- ment figures for April showed the tenth consecutive fall, although the total figure is still above three million. Inflation figures revealed a slight increase. The two main teachers' unions decided not to call off their industrial action during the period of the election campaign. The Bishop of Liverpool made an intervention on behalf of the 'urban poor' on the same day that the chief architect of his city was arrested by police officers investigating a fraud case. The trial of Nigel Hall for the murder of four-year-old Kimberley Carlile, and of her mother Pauline Carlile, ended at the Old Bailey. Sentencing Hall to life impris- onment, Mr Justice Steyn said that In the sordid annals of child abuse your crimes are uniquely wicked'. An Adam marble fireplace weighing half a ton was chiselled from its wall mounting and stolen from the London offices of the Building Employers' Confederation. At Ford open prison in Sussex thieves stole 400 potted conifer trees grown by the inmates. Coventry City won the FA cup by a last-minute own goal from a Spurs player.
AN American frigate, USS Stark, was hit by an Exocet missile fired from an Iraqi 'plane in the Gulf; 37 sailors were killed. A Pentagon spokesman said that the attack `had no indication of hostile intent'. Chan- cellor Kohl's Christian Democratic party suffered defeats in land elections following his rejection of the 'double-zero option' for nuclear missile reductions in Europe. An army coup took place in Fiji, a former British colony. A Methodist lay- preacher, Lieutenant-Colonel Sitivani Rabuka, said that he had taken over the government to avoid the danger of racial clashes between the Melanesian Fijians and Indians, who make up the majority of the population. On the sixth day, the deposed Prime Minister, Dr Timoci Bava- dr a was released, and the Governor- General ordered a fresh election. The trial of Klaus Barbie in Lyons will continue without the defendant. Barbie refused to appear 'because of the atmosphere of vengeance in the court'. South African authorities confirmed that they would ex- pel two television journalists working for the BBC and ITN. Forest fires in China continued to devastate hugh tracts of land. Uganda devalued its currency: a new `heavy' shilling, on which a 30 per cent `conversion tax' has to be paid, is worth 100 old shillings. The Prince of Wales spent three days living the life of a crofter on the isle of Berneray in the Outer Hebrides. His next engagement was at the Cannes film festival. Elizabeth Taylor was awarded the Legion of Honour by President Mitter- rand. Rita Hayworth died.
MStJT
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