PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The Marx Brothers — Night in Nigeria Apoliceman shot dead John Short- house, aged five, while searching a council flat in Birmingham. The boy's father was arrested and charged with robbing a res- taurant in Wales of £180 and some che- ques; when armed police searched his house, John Shorthouse was hiding or asleep beneath his bedclothes. He was hit by a single bullet while a policeman search- ed under his bed. Fifty-four people were killed when a full charter aircraft caught fire while preparing to take off from Manchester Airport. Eighty-three, among them the pilot, escaped; those who were burnt to death were most of them sitting in the smoking area at the rear of the plane. The National Union of Railwaymen pre- dicted a great majority in favour of strike action against the introduction of driver only trains. British Rail threatened to lock out all its employees in the event of a disruptive NUR strike; an attempt to disrupt bank holiday rail traffic through Doncaster failed when 75 per cent of the affected guards worked as usual, and col- lected large overtime bonuses for doing so. The Daily Mirror, on which an NGA member can earn £143 net for 90 minutes' work cleaning machines, was shut down by its proprietor, Robert Maxwell, after the NGA refused to allow printing of the Sporting Life to be transferred from Hol- born Circus. The IRA murdered an elec- tion worker for Sinn Fein who had been mistaken for a policeman. The Spectator's chief reporter, who is also writing this portrait, was kicked and bruised by a gang of black pickpockets at the Notting Hill Carnival who couldn't find his wallet. His condition is described as flippant.
HANS Ticdge, a department head in the West German counter-intelligence ser- vices, appeared in East Berlin, and announced that he had Seen the Light. He was the fourth East German spy to vanish from the West in the last fortnight, and had been responsible for catching the other three. West German sources described him as a borderline alcoholic who was heavily in debt because of his uncontrollable gambling; these quirks had been put down to the strain of the job. The Americans decided not to share Star Wars technology with the Germans. A French government report cleared the French government of any involvement in the Greenpeace mur- der. It admitted the presence of five combat-trained DGSE operatives in New Zealand, but explained that their mission was wholly peaceful. Jack Lange described this account as too transparent to be a whitewash. The Americans accused the KGB of using a carcinogenic powder to track foreigners in Moscow. Insurrection and oppression continued in South Africa. The rand collapsed beneath the weight of hopes disappointed by Mr Botha, and the authorities suspended all dealings in this currency. Eight hundred children were arrested in Soweto, for staying away from school, which in South Africa is not com- pulsory for blacks; the government dis- approves of school strikes against apar- theid. Bishop Desmond Tutu's son was arrested for disrupting the trial of a friend. Three visiting ministers from the EEC were refused permission to meet Nelson Mandela and may not even be allowed into the country. There was another coup in Nigeria; the new military government took power with traditional promises to stamp out corruption. In Ecuador, inflation reached 1,450 per cent. ACB
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