Portrait of the week
ritain claimed to have landed 5,000 La troops on the East Falklands, unop- posed although in subsequent air strikes a destroyer and two frigates were lost and the merchant ship Atlantic Conveyor abandon- ed. The War Cabinet gave instructions that Port Stanley should be tav:,n without delay. Britain claimed a total of 60 Argentinian aircraft destroyed, against the British naval losses and the losses of at least seven heli- copters and five Harriers. Argentina claim- ed that only 700 men had been landed, later amended to 2,000, and that they were con- fined to a beach and facing imminent at- tack. Rumours that the Argentinian force of Super Etendard bombers equipped with Exocet missiles, had been destroyed by a daring SAS commando raid were not en- couraged by reports that HMS Coventry had been sunk by one. In Washington Mr Haig predicted an early win for Britain. Differences of view were said to prevail in the Argentinian junta.
Russia halted grain purchases from Argentina, probably because of doubts about delivery, and all the EEC countries except Italy and Ireland agreed to continue sanctions indefinitely. The Pope said a Mass for Peace with British and Argenti- nian cardinals, and responded to entreaties not to cancel his visit from the British hierarchy by agreeing to come. Mrs That- cher rejected his appeal for a truce. South Africa denied rumours that it was supplying Argentina with missiles.
Dr Runcie seemed to change his mind again about the justice of British military action, saying it would have been wrong to turn the other cheek. Cardinal Hume re- mained worried about the sinking of the Belgrano. A 'peace' motion in the House of Commons was defeated 296-33 but found no supporters in the Lords. Robert Kee resigned from the BBC.
NUPE's Alan Fisher threatened an all- out strike in the National Health Ser- vice in support of a 12 per cent wage claim and the NUR's Arthur Scargill said his members might support it. In Liverpool, hospital porters vetted surgical lists to decide which operations were essential. Mr Basnett threatened to call out GMWU workers in the power industry and militants seemed poised to take over the Post Office Engineering Union, which apparently con- trols the dissemination of news. ASLEF continued in its refusal to countenance flex- ible rostering.
Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB, was appointed to the Communist Party Secretariat to take the place vacated by Mikhail Suslov. He was tipped to succeed Mr Brezhnev. Mr Begin just survived another vote of confidence in the Knesset. Sophia Loren went to prison in Rome to serve a 30-day sentence for tax evasion in 1970.
Mitcham and Beaconsfield by-elections seemed safe for the Tories. Mr Pym ap- peared to canvas a snap general election to cash in on the Falklands, but Mr Parkinson discouraged the idea. Labour prepared for the possibility with new proposals for a Wealth Tax and 'workers' control of the press, while Liberals mooted a ban on fox- hunting. Islington Council hauled down the red flag it had been flying over its town hall since the council was recaptured by Labour from the SDP after public protests and the defacing of a newly installed bust of Lenin. Lambeth returned a hung council with a Tory mayor exercising his casting vote against the former Labour leader, Ted Knight.
Inflation was said to be running at 9.4 per cent — the first time it had appeared in single figures since the last change of government — and the de Lorean motor car factory in Belfast was closed. Lord Denning caused much controversy by suggesting that blacks weren't much good as jurors, and two black jurors in a Bristol case which he had mentioned threatened to sue. Totten- ham Hotspur dropped their Argentinian player Ricardo Villa to draw with Queen's Park Rangers in the FA Cup Final and nearly 11 million people in Britain watched the world snooker championship on televi- sion. A play written by the Pope — The Jewellery Shop — opened to mixed reviews at the Westminster Theatre. The Bishop of Ely, who is called Peter Walker, was described as 'an unmitigated drip' by one of his vicars after introducing a new-style con- firmation service and Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, appealed unsuccessfully against conviction for murder, claiming to have been haunted by his victims in prison.
AAW `I wish it was just lying propaganda and not the real thing.'
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