Port of tilt week
Arriving in London, Mr Rupert Mur- doch announced there could be 'no compromise' about his demand for 600 redundancies at Times Newspapers. Earlier, he had agreed to return the titles of The Times and the Sunday Times to Times Newspapers Limited from the parent com- pany News International. Later, he extend- ed his deadline in tribute to the 'goodwill and leadership' of the unions involved. Later again, he sacked 210 clerical workers, then offered them voluntary. redundancy, saying he was full of hope...
After the British Railways Board had accepted Lord McCarthy's recommenda- tion to pay striking ASLEF drivers their 3 per cent increase without any productivity commitment, NUR guards called a wildcat strike in protest at their union's having agreed to the principle of flexible rostering. Mr Weighell; the NUR's general secretary, was booed by his members. British Railways promised a further rise of 15 per cent in fare charges 'within weeks'. After Sir Michael Edwardes had threatened to close down British Leyland's heavy vehicle plant at Leyland, Lancs, with the loss of 14,000 jobs, workers there agreed to return to work after angry scenes with strike organisers who claimed they hadn't. BL workers also returned in Bathgate. Scotland. The strike by baggage handlers at Heathrow Airport also received a setback when British Airways cabin staff refused to support it. However, militant old age pen- sioners lobbied Westminster, demanding higher pensions and other concessions. Lingering hopes of a lenient Budget were dashed by the falling price of oil.
In the world the politics, the Labour Par- ty's Militant Tendency renewed its cam- paign against the reselection of Labour members thought to be of insufficient mili- tant tendency. Mr Stan Cohen (South East Leeds) lost his nomination to a left-wing lecturer, becoming the fifth sitting member to be repudiated. Mr Foot unveiled details of his 'reflationary package', proposing to increase public expenditure by £8,000 million. The SDP continued to lose ground in the ratings from 36 per cent in December to 21.5 per cent.
In Poland it was said that 4,000 people had been detained and the city of Gdansk (Danzig) sealed off in a new crack-down. To the accompaniment of rumours of a popular uprising planned for the spring, General Jaruzelski announced he would be visiting Moscow next month to report on the security situation. The American Secretary of State, Mr Alexander Haig, described his British opposite number, Lord Carrington, as a 'duplicitous bastard'. The Irish elections produced another hung
parliament with Mr Haughey (Fianna Fail) 81 seats against Dr FitzGerald i0110 UlliverS::'..(Fin§Gael) and Labour who scored 63 and 15 respectively. The 17 independents were thought to be about to provide Mr Haughey with . a temporary overall majority. The Pope visited Benin, Equatorial Guinea an mpabon. In Spain, Queen Sofia was named
by lawyers as having been implicated in last year's attempted coup by Colonel Tejero, who briefly siezed control of the Spanish parliament with a pistol. Observers of Ugandan affairs put the toll of recent fight- ing with anti-government guerrillas at 69.
Ahome, in the courts, Mr Jack Lundin, a journalist, was cleared of contempt after refusing to reveal his source for documents which implicated a police sergeant in corruption over the supply of police information to Ladbroke Casinos. Mr William Douglas Home was found not to have been guilty of plagiarism, but faced legal costs of £35,000 against a legally-aided plaintiff. Mr David English, editor of the Daily Mail, was fined £500 for contempt under the 'strict liability' clause of the new Act, whereby in commenting on a by- election his newspaper was thought to have risked prejudicing a murder trial at the other end of the country, while being inno- cent of any intent to do so.
Sir George Terry, the Chief Constable of Sussex, was put in charge of inquiries into the Kincora Boys Home homosexual pro- stitution scandal in Ulster. Lord Moyne complained about the appearance of the two Stern Gang terrorists who murdered his father as heroes on a new issue of Israeli postage stamps. St. Saviours Church of England school at Toxteth was temporarily closed after a reign of terror by eight-, nine- and ten-year-olds. The Queen was said to be very angry about photographs of, the Princess of Wales, pregnant in a bikini, which appeared in the Sun and Daily Star. Both papers apologised but the Sun con- tinued to sell the photographs abroad. Princess Michael of Kent (the former Mrs Tom Troubridge) had her gall-bladder
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