Portrait of the Week
IF HE SUDDENLY breaks into 'Hello, Dolly,' or starts on one of Shirley Bassey's songs, you know everything's all right,' quoted the Sunday Times on George Brown. But Mr. Brown can have found little to sing about recently: EFTA was im- pressed that the import surcharge was to be cut by a third (in two months' time), and the price of Whisky and gin was slashed following the end of price-fixing. But the price may creep up again after the budget, for tough measures all round were forecast after Mr. Callaghan revealed that government spending was rising by 9 per cent next year.
THE FURORE over GPs' pay cooled down: BMA leaders and the Minister of Health got together and decided to ask the Kindersley Committee to 'clarify' what it was that the two sides were arguing about. Meanwhile doctors were asked to prepare resignation forms, and 2,800 (out of 24,000) complied at once. A cut in university ex- pansion was hinted at. unemployment fell to its lowest in nine years, dock and bus strikes were threatened, and massive rale increases— averaging 10 per cent—were proposed.
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AFTER NINTH COUP in just over a year in South
Vietnam. General Khanh fell from power, was restored, and was then toppled again: now he goes into semi-exile as 'roving ambassador.' Mean- while a second Chinese atom-bomb explosion was said to be imminent, and India imposed an im- ports surcharge. Mr. Wilson is to visit Paris in April. hoping to discover just why President de Gaulle has been so friendly recently, and is journeying to India, Pakistan and Malaysia later this year. Next month Mr. Wilson goes to Bonn. The announcement that the head had been stolen from his model in Mme Tussaud's was followed by the news that the authorities had a spare. Miss Jennie Lee persuaded the Government to in- crease its grant to the Arts Council by one-third.
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SIR ROGER CASEMENT'S remains were sent back to Ireland and Malcolm X, the fiery American Negro leader, was shot dead in New York. Ranger 8, the US rocket, hit the moon, just fifteen miles off target after a journey of 234,000 miles. In Southern Rhodesia. Mr. Bottomley and Lord Gardiner found the going as tough as expected; meanwhile in Malawi Dr. Banda introduced de- tention without trial. Where-are-they-now-depart- ment: Senator Goldwater began a weekly column in the New York Herald Tribune, and Pierre Salinger (once Kennedy's press secretary) had a one-line part in a Doris Day comedy. His line: 'If I had any influence I wouldn't be here.'
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