Portrait of the week
In a new attempt to lower the total of 3,200,000 unemployed the Employment Secretary announced a voluntary `share-a- job scheme'. Under this any arrangement which took one person off the unemployed register would attract a grant of £500. Under a separate scheme the government offered unemployed people jobs such as clearing canals, helping old or disabled peo- ple and insulating lofts. It was hoped that such, schemes might reduce the total of unemployed people by as much as 230,000. The 200-mile total exclusion zone around the Falkland Islands, imposed at the start of the war, was lifted. In order to prevent misunderstandings the Argentinians were asked to keep their warships and military aircraft at least 150 miles away from the Falklands coastline. It was suggested that throughout the war a team of French ex- perts had been working for the Argentinian air force fitting Exocet missiles, despite a French government embargo on military aid. The French government officially denied this report. The 13ritish government revealed that the French air force had assisted British preparations for the war by carrying out mock air attacks on the task force as it passed through the Bay of Biscay. The Ministry of Defence suggested that, due to recent technical advances, the Exocet missile, which sank HMS Sheffield and the Atlantic Conveyor, was now regarded as obsolete.
Aservice held at St Paul's Cathedral, which was in some way connected with the recent events in the Falkland Islands, caused public controversy. Conser- vative critics regretted that it had not borne a more military character and that it did not pay due honour to the British task force. Many relatives of those who had died in the fighting attended the service and heard the Archbishop of Canterbury denounce the world arms trade. The service marked the first public appearance of the Princess of Wales since the birth of her son. It was noted that her pearl necklace burst apart when she sneezed. The government offered the Cunard company £3 million if it would build a replacement ship for the Atlantic Conveyor in a British yard. Cunard describ- ed this offer as 'derisory'. A 24-year old man who posed as a survivor • of HMS Coventry in the Royal Naval Club at Rhyl was given a 6-month jail sentehce.
The total of those who died in last week's IRA bomb explosions rose to ten. The Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, Sir David McNee, declined further suggestions that he should resign following the recent
Buckingham Palace security debacle. No other senior police resignations were an- nounced, but the off-duty police sergeant who saw 'the bedroom intruder' climbing over the Palace wall and reported it im- mediately was reprimanded for insufficient zeal. Commander Michael Trestrail, whose career as the Queen's police officer ended when it was revealed that he had visited a homosexual prostitute, denied that there was 'a gay community among the Queen's staff sheltered by senior officials with public school backgrounds'. The Metro- politan Police were criticised by the Italian police for inadequately investigating the death of an Italian banker, Roberto Calvi, who was found dangling beneath Blackfriars Bridge last month. Italian in- vestigations into this affair, and into the related `Sindona scandal', led to the Vatican bank's highest lay official being charged with fraud. Signor Calvi's family announced that they intended to challenge the suicide verdict brought in by a London coroner's jury. In Beirut, Israeli forces reopened their air and artillery attacks on the western part of the city. 120 people were reported to have been killed. There were confused reports that Mr Yasser Arafat might or might not have signed a piece of paper recognising the Jewish state.
The International Whaling Commission voted to end commercial whaling by 1985 for a period of five years, a decision most strongly, opposed by Japan. There were official protests from China and South Korea at recent changes made in Japanese school books which minimised or concealed the truth about massacres and other atrocities carried out by Japanese forces in the 1930s. In Zimbabwe 13 aircraft were destroyed on the ground by unknown saboteurs, thereby reducing the strength of the national air force by 25 per cent. Dr Jeremy Bean, a GP from Broadhurst Kent who sometimes attends his surgery dressed in a blouse, skirt and high-heeled shoes, was ordered to repay £5,000 to the estate of a deceased patient, who had committed
Wanna see some pictures of Buckingham Palace, guy?'
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