Portrait of the year
Exit 1967, unwept and unhonoured. Britain again tried to join the xEc: de Gaulle again said 'Non.' Unemployment rose to the highest level for twenty- seven years. The Scottish Nationalists won Hamil- ton and the Government also lost Glasgow Pollok, Cambridge, Walthamstow West, Leicester, the GLC and a whole string of local elections. In November, after repeated denials, the pound was devalued to $2.40. Mr Callaghan resigned and there was a rush to buy gold.
Abroad it was a bloody year. There was a six- day war in the Middle East, convincingly won by the Israelis—Jerusalem was taken and the Suez Canal closed. In Greece a military junta staged a. coup and came to power: nine months later King Constantine staged a countercoup and fled to Rome. In Vietnam 7,000 Ameritans and 67,000 Vietcong were killed. There were Black Power riots in the us and black Nigerians fought to crush Biafra; meanwhile, white Rhodesians suc- cessfully withstood another year of sanctions. Svetlana turned up in America, Philby in Red Square. The Chinese spent a violent year warring among themselves, beating up foreign diplomats and testing H-bombs.
Britain finally left Aden to the NLF, Aldabra was left to the turtles and Mr Grimond left the Liberal leadership to Mr Thorpe. It was the year of the GEC-AEI takeover, of Expo '67 . . . the Lords were to be reformed, abortion law was reformed, Concorde unveiled, the Stansted scheme reviled, Enfield parents and British Museum trustees rebuffed. Thousands of animals were slaughtered in Britain's worst-ever foot-and- mouth outbreak. The obituary list included Lord Attlee, Harold Holt, Konrad Adenalier, Sir Mal- colm Sargent, four spacemen and Louis Wash- kansky, who had lived for eighteen days with someone else's heart inside him. Sir Francis Chichester sailed round the world and the 'Torrey Canyon' ran aground. 'Queen Elizabeth II' was launched, and 'Queen Mary' sent to America. Colonel Lohan left the D Notices Committee and motorists left their cars at home for fear of the breathalyser.
Previous page
