Portrait of the week
Gas was found off Bournemouth. The Liberal Party's strategists said that ambiguities in their party's relations with the SDP needed quickly to be resolved. Interest rates fell again, and the annual rate of inflation went down to 4.5 per cent, the lowest for a year. The numbers em- ployed in manufacturing rose for the first time in seven years, albeit by only 3,000, but observers were alarmed to see that wages in manufacturing went on rising faster than inflation. Tam Dalyell MP said Ministry of Defence documents he had been sent anonymously, concerning the sinking of the Belgrano (a subject in which he is known to be interested), proved that the Government had lied to the House of Commons, but Norman St John Stevas MP said the documents contained nothing of great importance. The Labour MP Dr Roger Thomas, having said he would resign his seat of Carmarthen because he had been convicted on anlindecencyjcharge, changed his mind. Belfast endured its worst riots by loyalists for seven years. BSC decided to unload coal for Ravens- craig despite dockers' opposition. A small number of miners, scattered over many different pits, defied pickets and returned to work. Dissident miners set up a national working miners' committee to challenge the NUM leadership. The Labour Herald condemned Mr Kinnock for condemning picket line violence. Mr MacGregor 'said : `Mr Scargill has orchestrated a campaign of criminal acts and must be brought before the country's courts to answer for it.' Mr Scargill dismissed remarks un- favourable to himself as propaganda born of desperation. Left-wing union leaders said they would propose to the Trades Union Congress next month that those breaking the Government's union laws should be supported by a general strike. Eleven members of an aircraft preserva- tion society were killed when one of their aircraft crashed. A driver was killed when he drove his tube train into the back of another which was stationary. A Libyan was shot dead in London. Lord Fermoy shot himself.
praise the Lord,' whispered John De Lorean on being cleared of eight charges of drug trafficking by a jury in Los Angeles which had heard 18,000 pages of evidence and seemed to conclude that he had been unfairly entrapped by the police. He has yet to satisfy his creditors, including the British Government, who are claiming $100 million in bankruptcy proceedings in Detroit. Miss Geraldine Ferraro faced more and more intense inquiries into her and her husband's financial affairs, which did not seem to be quite in order. They sent a cheque for $53,00o of taxes overlooked since 1978. The Republican Party gathered in Dallas in triumphal mood for its national convention. Israel's economic difficulties worsened: the caretaker Likud govern- ment asked for even more money from the Americans. In many towns in Andhra Pradesh there were riots after the state government had been dismissed and re- placed by one favourable to Mrs Gandhi's Congress Party. The British Government's decision to supply two landing craft to Iran annoyed other countries. In West Ger- many, the trial began of those accused of perpetrating the Hitler diaries forgery. It was not expected that the Master of Peter- house would be asked to give evidence.
Hollie Roffey, who was given a new heart at the age of ten days but developed bowel, kidney and lung trouble, died aged 28 days despite the efforts of Mr Yacoub, her surgeon, to resuscitate her. A group of civil servants published its recom- mendations on the control of football hooliganism, including the setting up of a league table of clubs with troublesome supporters, which the Sports Minister wel- comed and everyone else derided. It was thought that the post of Sports Minister might be abolished. The Criminal Law Revision Committee recommended that kerb crawlers be fined. The popular papers competed with each other to offer the most ludicrously inflated bingo prizes, making the Times's bingo competition seem the .epitome of moderation. The Safe from the sunken liner Andrea Doria was opened and found to contain soggy banknotes. The rapist from Bedfordshire known as the Fox struck in Yorkshire. Some CND suppor- ters tried to give a flowering cherry tree to Hereford Cathedral in memory of the victims of the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki, but the verger, having nowhere to plant it, rejected it, and it was taken to Hereford police station. AJSG
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