PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Follies Mr Neil Kinnock gained overwhelm- ing support for a wholesale revision of Labour policies at the party's annual con- ference at Brighton. The price of the union block vote for the revisionist cause was the adoption of an electoral college system, which will preserve for the Trade Union movement its influential role in the elec- tion of Labour leaders, and the rejection of the principle of one member, one vote. In an otherwise bleak week for the Left, Mr Ken Livingstone was elected to the party's National Executive Committee. The mar- kets were shocked by August's trade fi- gures which revealed an unprecedented monthly balance of payments deficit of £929 million, three times July's shortfall. Mr Nigel Lawson said that the figures would not cause any revision of the official prediction of a yearly deficit of £2.5 billion, and that there was no need to raise interest rates. Mr John Moore, the Social Services Secretary has called for re-thinking of the welfare state, so that only those in genuine need would receive state support. The Liverpool health authority said that more than 900 positive cervical smear tests had been wrongly diagnosed, due to the incom- petence of a loOurn. In the inquest on the Hungerford massacre, a policeman re- vealed that the killer Michael Ryan said wish I had stayed in bed' before shooting himself with his last bullet. Great Britain and Europe retained the Ryder Cup. It was the first time that the US had lost the golfing competition on US soil. Mr Robert Maxwell has decided that his British Print- ing and Communication Corporation should be renamed the Maxwell Com- munication Corporation. Mr Maxwell said that he had been forced by his colleagues to agree to the renaming of the group.
COLONEL Sitiveni Rabuka said he would declare Fiji a republic, following a military coup. Buckingham Palace responded that the governor general, Sir Penaia Ganilau remained the sole legitimate power in Fiji. Australia and New Zealand said that they would introduce economic sanctions against the rebel government. Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware withdrew from the race for the 1988 Democratic presiden- tial nomination, saying that his owning up to charges of plagiarism had 'obscured the essence' of his campaign. Mr George Bush, the US vice-president on a visit to Poland made a broadcast on Polish Television, supporting the ideals of Solidarity. Presi- dent Reagan accepted a bill which will implement, if necessary with tax increases, a $23 billion cut in the $183 billion deficit expected next year. Mr Reagan had earlier said that he would accept tax increases `over my dead body'. In Washington fi- nance ministers of the leading industrial nations attempted to soothe the markets by pledging continued support for exchange- rate stability at current levels. They claimed that there had been no dispute over the heavy cost already involved in the operation to support the ailing dollar, despite reports that the US Federal Re- serve had already exhausted its yen re- serves. Royal Navy minesweepers are to undertake their first Gulf mission, after the discovery of three mines off the Dubai coast. A landslide buried a shanty town in Medellin, Colombia, killing up to 500 people. The workers at Avis, the company that tries harder, are attempting to buy the business from its owners for $1.75 billion. A Japanese company, Sanko Chemical, has developed odourless garlic. DRCL
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