PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The Tory party remained in some con- fusion as opinion polls showed it in third place. A Cornish MP announced that he could no longer vote with the Government on issues of social or industrial policy after the collapse of the local tin mining indus- try. British Shipbuilders announced the loss of 3,500 jobs; unemployment rose again. Mrs Thatcher told Scottish Con- servatives that there were still 'dragons to be slain': inflation fell to its lowest level since 1968, and concern was expressed for the fate of the British llama breeding industry, which is threatened by American competition. Mr Francis Pym announced his retirement from politics; Mr Ken Livingstone, accompanied by Mr Gerry Adams of the IRA, made a speech in which he compared the possible extradi- tion of two convicted IRA terrorists from Holland to Britain to the return of Jewish dissidents to the Soviet Union. The FBI arrested eight men for attempting to purch- ase arms including ground-to-air missiles for Irish dissidents Mrs Rose Quinn, an illiterate Irish gypsy of no known political opinions, was jailed for two years after defrauding the DHSS of £43,000 by claim- ing benefits for 14 more children than the ten she has. Mr Ian Botham dropped his libel action against the Mail on Sunday, which had accused him of taking drugs while on tour in New Zealand some years ago. While this allegation is still vigorously denied, he admitted for the third time to smoking marijuana in his youth, and was promptly suspended from the England cricket team until these sensational revela- tions had been fully investigated. A foot- ball hooligan who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for riotous behaviour after smashing a barman's face with a broken beer glass had his sentence on this count reduced to three years. A six-year- old boy was given a heart-transplant.
SOUTH African planes and commandoes attacked what were described as ANC bases in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Zam- bia, killing three people. A South African court found Ms Helen Pastoors, who holds dual Dutch and Belgian nationality, guilty of treason, on the grounds that her know- ledge of ANC arms dumps had been acquired in South Africa. A 78-year-o1d blind man was elected to serve his fifth term as president of the Dotninican Re- public. Setior Eden Pastora, who had fought with distinction on both sides of the Nicaraguan civiL war, announced his retire- ment to neutral Costa Rica. Both sides in the Gulf War claimed victories on the central front. The members of the junta which led Argentina into the Falklands War found themselves even more unpopu- lar than Mrs Thatcher, and were sentenced, by a military court to between eight and 14 years for incompetence. Colonel Gaddafi wrote to an American schoolgirl denying that Libyans were 'terrorists and murder- ers'; she has since written to Mrs Thatcher. At Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, mechanical pterodactyl spun out of control and crashed on its maiden flight in public. ACO
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