- - Portrait of the Week— SEVEN DAYS A.D. (after Denning), and
political standards began slipping on both sides, as a fore- taste of unpleasant election campaigns. The Labour Party Conference made a bold bid for a brave new world, but party leaders continued their shadow-boxing over the jobs they wanted. The façade of brotherhood was maintained, but only just. The press remarked that all aspects of the Denning inquiry have become 'all too boring' to the man on the Clapham omnibus—but the report Was Britain's best-selling book this week. Other books prominent were The Girls of Slender Means, Radcliffe (not the report), and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. Lord Denning himself is considering withdrawing his candida- ture for the rectorship of Edinburgh University, where his rivals are Sonny Liston, Peter Ustinov and ex-Queen Soraya.
A BAD WEEK FOR SEX. With its 4:10pUlathy
criticised by the Bishop of Coventry, and a Quaker attacked for defending it. The British Veterinary Association was told that British cows were ,too highly-strung. Meanwhile the British economy began moving, with balance of
Payments, retail trade and car production figures all improving. Vauxhall, Jaguar and Ford's re- vealed, amid a welter of press advertising, their latest models, all of which are apparently so wonderful that not all the motoring correspon- dents together could find anything but the slightest flaw. The British vertical take-off plane crashed near Belfast. Three hundred CND supporters, protesting against George Clark's eighteen-month sentence, demonstrated outside the Home Secre- tary's Hampstead home. Mr. Brooke was in the Isle of Man. Mr. Marples's jaywalking scheme, involving £20 fines, began experimental opera- tion: among other threats of the week were a teachers' school-meals strike in Surrey, the resignation of Sir Learie ,Constantine as High Commissioner in London for Trinidad, a multi- lingual newspaper• as part of a Lord Russell peace foundation, while Caerphilly cheese may be made in Caerphilly once more.
ON HIS TWENTIETH PROVINCIAL TOUR, President de Gaulle took a few side-swipes at the Anglo- Saxons, and promised to take a second seven- Year term of office. Dr. Adenauer, resigning this month, observed that he felt Mr. Macmillan should also resign. The International Monetary Fund remained entwined in Washington, but Mafia secrets were unravelled in the same city by an ex-member, Joe Valachi. The Vatican Coun- cil began its second session, with two Russian Orthodox observers. Russia is to publish a six- volume history of the Soviet Communist Party, designed to prove 'the adventurism of the Chinese and other leaders.' As this year's harvest was so disastrous, Russia hoped to buy wheat from the US, while the latter's chicken game with the EEC remained at stalemate. But the US is to remove 5,000 troops from Europe to ease the gold flow, and Britain edged its way nearer the multilateral force. Three hundred civil servants in Brussels threw fireworks to cause chaos in their examination room, and President Sukarno has banned the twist as 'this is not Indonesian cul- ture.' The Indonesian threat to Malaysia fizzled rather than spluttered.
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BRITAIN i_Byr THE DAVIS CUP, losing 5-0 to the US, but her sporting reputation was enhanced by an, athletics victory in Russia. Meanwhile, a Leicestershire man broke the world speed golf record, doing an eighteen-hole round in forty-one minutes, and a Derbyshire 'potholer broke the world potholing record, spending 105 days under- ground. After his feat, he attributed his success to the discipline of 'bull' in the RAF.
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