PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Mr John Major, the Prime Minister, spent some days trying to redefine his poli- cy of 'back to basics' after the press publi- cised embarrassing behaviour by MPs. Mr Tim Yeo, aged 48, who resigned last week as an environment minister after admitting having recently fathered an illegitimate child, admitted having fathered another illegitimate child when he was a student 25 years ago. Mr Alan Duncan, the 36-year- old millionaire member for Rutland, admit- ted , having given a loan to a next-door neighbour in Westminster, who used it to buy from the council his house, which he later sold to Mr Duncan, who has now resigned as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Dr Brian Mawhinney, a post which he took up on 22 December. He commented: 'At least if I'd been fucking someone, I'd have been enjoying myself.' The wife of Lord Caithness shot herself: Lord Caith- ness a transport minister, aged 45, has resigned. Mr David Ashby, aged 53, the MP for north-west Leicestershire, was criticised for saving money by taking one hotel room while on holiday, thus having to share a bed with a male friend of his: nothing improper occurred. The Duchess of Kent became a Catholic. The IRA injured three policemen in a rocket attack; a UVF rocket ricocheted off a wall. Ireland lifted its 20-year ban on
terrorists' broadcasting. Flooding contin- ued in the south of England; troops built bridges to connect Chichester with the rest of the world, the Thames burst its banks at Hampton Court. Barclays bank is to cut staff by 3,000. The Press Complaints Com- mission appointed Professor Robert Pinker as a 'privacy commissioner'; his telephone number is 081 858 5320. Police in Dyfed and Powys encouraged farmers to paint their postcodes on the roofs of cattle lorries so that helicopters might spot them if they were stolen. Rachel Whiteread's sculpture 'House', the winner of the Turner prize, was demolished. A Territorial Army major was separated from his wife after 12 hours of marriage when he assaulted her out of jealousy; 'I sent her a Christmas card, I just hope she comes back,' he said.
AT A SUMMIT of Nato members, limited air-strikes against Serbian positions in Bosnia were promised at the instigation of Britain and France if Serb forces continued action against Srebrenica and Tuzla. Talks in Bonn between Mr Franjo Tudjman, the Croatian leader, and Mr Alia Izetbegovic, the Bosnian Muslim leader, made hardly any progress. Fighting went on. President Clinton tried to persuade eastern European countries to settle for relations with Nato falling short of full membership. Ukraine agreed in principal to the destruction of its nuclear arsenal, which is the third largest in the world; but debate on the matter contin- ued in Kiev. Bush fires raged in New South Wales and burnt some suburbs of Sydney. A mass grave of Lithuanians killed by Stal- in's forces was discovered under a concert hall in Vilnius. The Mexican interior minis- ter, Mr Patrocinio Gonzalez, was sacked in an effort to calm insurgents in Chiapas state where he was formerly governor and the foreign minister, Mr Fernando Solana Morales, was transferred to the task of negotiating with the rebels. More than 60,000 people in Afghanistan fled in wintry weather from heavy fighting around Kabul. Bobo tribesmen shot dead eight policemen in Assam. Calum Gardner, a British aid worker kidnapped by Somali gunmen, was released after more than 36 hours of com- plex negotiations. Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the former President of Georgia, died, report- edly by his own hand, aged 54. Tip O'Neill, for 11 years Speaker of the House of Rep- resentatives, died, aged 81. Poland is being urged to use the Fahrenheit scale by devo- tees of Gabriel Fahrenheit, who was born in Gdansk in 1686.
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