Portrait of the Week
Two prisoners came off hunger strike in Belfast, bringing the total now to five. The most recent, Laurence McKeown, was also the most dramatic as he had been without food for 70 days. The IRA attempted to counter this setback — as well as charges that they had not capitalised enough on the propaganda value of hunger-strikers — by blowing up two young policemen.
The first congress of the Polish trade union Solidarity opened in Gdansk, and the Polish government found opposition from the most unlikely quarter — prisoners at a jail demanded reforms and while some escaped, others staged a sit-in.
The TUC held its annual conference at Blackpool, and began with a move to the right, by allowing the smaller, and usually more moderate, unions a seat on the General Council. Mr Benn, Mr Healey and Mr Silkin were expected at the conference rallying support, each expressing confidence in becoming deputy leader of the Labour Party, and Mr Benn seemed certain of the Mineworkers' endorsement.
Exactly what will be left of the Labour Party for one of them to be deputy leader of, was not clear — another Labour MP, Michael O'Halloran, joined the Social Democrats along with 16 councillors from his Islington constituency. Another Labour MP, Arthur Lewis, announced he was fighting a Trotskyist takeover in Newham north-west, and a former aide of Mr Healey, Alan Lee Williams, also decided to join the SDP.
The Pope sent a message of support to the Solidarity conference, calling it 'an important deed for the life of Poland'. Another Pope, Shenauda III, patriarch of the Coptic Church which has seven million members in Egypt was dismissed by President Sadat as part of his purge of the opposition. Another leading Iranian — the prosecutor-general — was assassinated.
A West Indian cricket team from Brixton beat the local police in a cricket match at the Oval attended by Lord Scarman. Elsewhere the police seemed keen to be playing each other — the chief constable of Devon and Cornwall, John Alderson, said that some other chief constables wanted to sacrifice a police style that had been the envy of the world for 150 years. One of these, Manchester chief constable John Alderton, complained of being gagged by his local police committee. A police instructor was accused of pulling a woman cadet's knickers down and spanking her.
Britain's top athletes expect to make millions out of the decision to allow them to accept sponsorship. As if to celebrate, Alan Wells, Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett all won their events at the World Cup in Rome. South Africa was still excluded from international athletics. Nottingham Forest sold England football star Trevor Francis to Manchester City for £1,250,000.
British Petroleum recorded a drop in profits — from £876 million to £596 million — for the first half of this year. Petrol sales are now down by nearly 10 per cent because of the cost — the companies said this drop in sales will mean another price rise. Picasso's painting, `Guernica', may return to Spain from the Museum of Modern Art in New York where it has been since Franco first came to power in Spain.
Medical records of many famous people were found dumped on a rubbish tip in Leicestershire. A man was bitten by a possibly rabid cat; the man's wife caught the cat but police advised her to let it go. Television star Esther Rantzen cancelled her contract to appear on breakfast television and the author Alec Waugh died in Florida, aged 83.
The Princess of Wales received a dark look from the Queen, who was not amused when her daughter-in-law chatted during the National Anthem. A female lawyer in New Delhi was thrown out of court for wearing jeans. A man was sentenced to be stoned to death in Pakistan for committing adultery. The woman was sentenced to 100 lashes.
P.H.
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