Portrait of the week
The Prince of Wales announced that his son and heir will be christened William Arthur Philip Louis, and styled Prince William of Wales. Among his godparents will be Sir Laurens van der Post, the 75-year-old South African writer. A spokesman for The Princess Anne said she was pleased by the choice of names.
The great NUR strike, the first since 1955, got off to a good start, with dissident workers unable to run more than a skeleton suburban service, but was cancelled on its first day by a 47-30 vote of NUR delegates meeting in Plymouth. However, ASLEF declared an all-out strike to start a few days later. The London Underground resumed normal working after a week on strike.
Earlier, 80-mile traffic jams had been reported in and around London as com- muters left home at 3 a.m. Mr Scargill said that no coal would move in any direction for the duration of the NUR strike, but the London branch of SOGAT announced that its 20,000 members would defy the union's national executive to move newspapers and magazines by road. Sir Peter Parker, in a personal message to his 230,000 employees, promised that British Rail would not dismiss workers expelled from their union for defying the strike call. After the ASLEF decision, Mrs Thatcher promised legislation to enforce secret strike ballots.
Mr Scargill, who had walked out of his first meeting with the new Coal Board Chairman, Mr Norman Siddall, after three and a half minutes, urged that the.National Health strike on 19-21 July would be a good opportunity for trade unionists generally to demonstrate their defiance of Mr Prior's law against secondary picketing. So, in less lurid tones, did Mr Len Murray, who cir- culated union general secretaries urging unlawful action in sympathy. After a sym- pathetic response had been received from ASTMS, QMWU, TGWU, and NUM as well as the Health Service unions, it ap-
peared that more than half the country's 11 million trade unionists might be on strike. The Times reappeared after two days' absence caused by an electricians' strike.
Mr Al Haig resigned as US Secretary of State, to be replaced by George Shultz, a Californian businessman. Mr Haig said he felt that US foreign policy had departed from the 'consistency, clarity and steadiness of purpose' which had previously characterised it. The change was thought inimical to European and Israeli interests. Syrian forces withdrew, defeated, from West Beirut; where PLO forces faced a de- mand for their surrender and removal to Syria. About 350 Britons were evacuated
from Beirut. Iraq completed the ig- nominious withdrawal of its troops from all occupied Iranian territory.
Spain faced French objections on, agriculture and wine to its application for EEC membership. Moscow announced it could supply the machinery denied by America for its gas pipeline from Siberia to Western Europe. Common Market coun- tries expressed dismay at the American at- titude. In Zimbabwe; Mr Joshua Nkomo, sacked from the government in February, denied responsibility for a machine-gun at- tack on Robert Mugabe's home.
Mr Rex Hunt returned as Civil Commis- sioner in the Falklands, where Sappers con- tinued to tackle about 10,000 land mines strewn at random by the occupying forces. Total Argentinian casualties were put at about 2,500 by Argentinian military sources, but nobody seemed prepared to ac- cept this figure. Three British journalists were released on bail in Argentina of whom one, Mr Simon Winchester of the Sunday Times, said he was 'over the moon'.
A national opinion poll put Mr Owen rlahead of Roy Jenkins by 47 per cent to 29 per cent and Labour held Coatbridge fairly comfortably in the by-election. A huge man-hunt was organised in North Yorkshire for a lunatic thought to have kill- ed two policemen. In Belfast there were various explosions, including a car bomb left outside a nurses' hostel which injured 24 nurses, none gravely. Mr Rolf Schild, victim with his daughter of a Sardinian kid- napping, had his libel action against the Sunday Express dismissed with £50,000 costs, subject to appeal, by Mr Justice Mars-Jones. The second Test at Old Traf- ford ended in a draw after, rain stopped play and a rainy Wimbledon produced few sur- prises. Of British entries, only Buster Mottram got beyond the third round. Princess Anne was the subject of con- siderable criticism on both sides of the Atlantic after her cool reception of the news that the Princess of Wales had borne a son.
AAW `What did you do in the great transport strike, Daddy?'
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