i
Despite a further cut in interest rates to their lowest level since March 1977, ten and a half per cent — there was little hope of higher industrial growth in the period before the next General Election. It was expected that Mrs Thatcher would an- nounce a minor cabinet reshuffle within the next two weeks. At the same time it was revealed that she had instructed Cabinet ministers to return promptly from their holidays by the end of August. Mr Norman Fowler, the Health Service Minister, con- tinued his battle with the Health Service unions. The Confederation of Health Ser- vice Employees called for an illegal one day General Strike following the nurses' rejec- tion of a seven and a half per cent pay of- fer. Following criticism of Mrs Thatcher, by the general secretary of COHSE, for having her varicose veins removed in a private hospital, it was revealed that in- creasing numbers of trade unionists were in- vesting in cut rate group subscriptions to private health insurance schemes. The latest group of public workers to consider strike action were the registrars, who pondered a plan to ban all weddings.
In Paris a newly formed anti-terrorist squad captured two Irish men and a woman alleged to be members of the Irish National Liberation Army, the organisation which claimed to have murdered Mr Airey Neave in 1979. It was said that the three were planning attacks on British targets in France and Holland. Despite growing pressure from the Reagan administration it seemed likely that European cooperation with Russian plans to pipe natural gas from Siberia to West Germany would continue. Two French companies supplying com- ponents for the pipeline were 'blacklisted', and John Brown Engineering — which was contracted to supply turbines costing £104m — was expected to be placed in the same position.
In Poland a serious clash between the military government and the free trade union Solidarity took place as the country's underground opposition called for huge demonstrations to commemorate the se- cond anniversary of the union's legitimisa- tion. In Beirut the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Yasser Arafat, was among the last Palestinians to leave the city under the protection of French, American and Italian troops. Amid scenes of chaotic enthusiasm he set sail in a Greek cruise ship for Athens. Nahum Goldmann, formerly president of the World Zionist Organisation, died. During the war he had been listed by the Nazis as an enemy to be shot on sight. In one of his last public
statements he accused Mr Begin of fomen- ting anti-semitism by his invasion of the Lebanon. A campaign to allow ex-King Umberto of Italy, who is 77, to return to his homeland for the first time since 1946, con- trary to the Italian constitution, gathered strength. Ex-Empress Zita of Austria, who is 90, returned to her homeland for the first time since 1919, having defied a ruling that she should first declare her loyalty to the Austrian, Republic.
Anthony Wedgwood Benn proposed that the Queen's remaining prerogative powers be transferred to the Speaker of the House of Commons. A report published by Labour's national executive revealed that the party had lost a fifth of its membership in the last year. The party's own explana- tion was that the annual subscription, at five pounds, was too high. Cardiologists working at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, which specialises in heart transplants, ap- pealed to the Department of Health to end the heart transplant programme. A joint British and American research project reached the conclusion that exercise was frequently dangerous and could seriously damage people's health. An elderly mob outside the court room in Harrogate tried to attack two men accused of robbing and beating a 74-year old spinster. 700 members of the Animal Liberation Front fought with police for two hours outside a research cen- tre in Cambridgeshire where experiments on animals were carried out. Later a spokesman for the ALF said that they in- tended to 'get at' the Princess of Wales because she sometimes wore a white mink jacket. The actress Ingrid Bergman died on
her 67th birthday in London. PHM
'He may recover, but he could be anti- semitic for the rest of his life.'
Previous page
