T he Treasury discontinued the annual payment of £3.08 which had
been made to Oxford University since 1214 in partial restitution for the deaths of two students at the hands of an angry mob of townees. The miners' strike entered its 17th week. Mr Scargill failed to persuade the steel workers to co-operate with him, and tried to arrange a blockade of steel works instead. The coal board revealed that coal production had risen by 16 per cent during the last steel strike, and that the personal letter sent by Mr MacGregor to 180,000 miners had so far had 700 replies, many anonymous, and most in favour of a return to work. Mr Leon Brittan and Mr Peter Walker attacked the intimidation of working miners. Sir John Hoskyns attacked the Government for not taking a more aggressive part in the dispute. More talks were arranged between the NCB and the NUM. Ray Buckton told a Russian trade union newspaper that Britain was turning into a police state, and that hundreds of miners had already been beaten up and crippled by the police. Len Murray fainted at a rally to commemorate the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The Government's plan to abolish elections to the GLC in ad- vance of the abolition of the GLC itself was defeated in the Lords. Mr Ronnie Knight, estranged husband of the prominent come- dienne Barbara Windsor, was discovered living in great luxury on the Costa Del Sol, apparently on part of the proceeds of the £25 million bullion robbery last year, the largest in British history. A grandson of Lord Haw Haw was shot and seriously wounded by the police while robbing a Lon- don bank equipped with a replica revolver. The FBI supplied the London police with a psychological profile of the Notting Hill rapist, a technique once used to catch the Boston Strangler. Michel Foucault died in Paris. A memorial service for Sir John Bet- jeman was held in Westminster Abbey. Prince Charles read the lesson.
The Liberal Economics Ministers of West Germany from 1972 to 1984, Herr Hans Friderichs and Count Otto Lambs- dorff, were ordered by the district court in Bonn to face trial on corruption charges arising from the way in which a West Ger- man company was granted tax exemptions worth £150 million. Count Lambsdorff resigned on hearing the news. Both pro- tested their innocence. The German metal- workers' strike was settled after seven weeks with a small pay increase and a reduction of the working week. Iraqi planes damaged a supertanker and three freighters in the Gulf. In the Philippines, Mrs Imelda Marcos gave evidence on her 55th birthday to a commission enquiring into the murder of Senator Aquino. The court rose and sang 'Happy Birthday'. Mrs Marcos claimed to have done everything in her power to pre- vent Aquino's murder by persuading him to
remain in the United States. President Reagan announced his eagerness to take up a Russian invitation to talk about demilitarising space. There was some con- fusion over whether these talks would be linked to the negotiations on nuclear weapons, at present in abeyance. Mr Gromyko accused the Americans of 'play- ing with words'. President Reagan then made a personal appeal to President Chernenko. Three British parliamentarians on a three week visit to Argentina were forced to abandon their final press con- ference when pelted with eggs. They return- ed home claiming to have a plan for peace. Sir Rex Hunt invited them to spend three weeks in the Falklands. Sir Geoffrey Howe visited Moscow, and had a 'disappointingly negative' reception. British Leyland was fined by the EEC Commission for obstruc- ting the import of cheap foreign cars.
A75-year-old widow beat off the attempt of two youths to rob her shop by assaulting them with a rolled-up copy of the Daily Telegraph. Two Arab princesses, their occupation described as 'housewife', were released on bail of £15,000 each, charged with conspiring to assault their ser- vants. Christopher Meah was awarded £45,000 damages for brain injuries sustain- ed in a car crash which altered his sexual habits for the worse. He is serving life im- prisonment for raping three women, one of whom was awarded £3,500 compensation. Michael Telling was jailed for life for the manslaughter of his wife Monika, known as 'the headless corpse'. He said he was glad not to have been branded a murderer. Two thousand minor offenders were released early on parole to diminish overcrowding in prisons. The West Indies beat England at Lord's by nine wickets. The Duke of Devonshire sold some drawings for over £19 million. A transvestite father of three was banned from the Miss Southsea beauty
'If you don't extend our overdrafts we'll form a debtors' cartel.'
Previous page
