PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Mrs Thatcher visits an inner city The chairman of British Telecom, Sir George Jefferson, is to resign. He made his unexpected announcement at the com- pany's annual meeting, barely a week after the publication of the winner of the Specta- tor's BT Horror Competition. Sir George conceded that the company had recently provided 'an unsatisfactory level of ser- vice'. The new broom to replace Mr Jefferson is Mr Iain Vallance — currently chief executive of British Telecom. At a private meeting with some clients of James Capel, the stockbroking firm, Professor Bryan Carsberg, director general of the Office of Telecommunications, revealed that he would probably call for the inves- tigation of BT by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. When the news of the meeting leaked out last week the stock market instantly wiped almost £500 million from its valuation of BT. The Financial Times sacked two junior employees of its FinStat subsidiary, for using privileged information as the basis for share deals amounting to about £10,000. An overtime ban in British coalfields drew closer after British Coal refused to accept binding arbitration from ACAS as the final step in its disciplinary code. Mr Baker, the Educa- tion Secretary, set out in a Green Paper the terms on which inner London boroughs could secede from ILEA. The Liberal Party Assembly at Harrogate gave Mrs Shirley Williams two standing ovations, while Liberals stayed away in droves from the launch meeting of a group opposed to merger with the SDP. The Law Commis- sion said that house-buyers in England could avoid gazumping by adopting the Scottish method of sealed bids, and that this need involve no change in English law. Midland Bank rebuffed a takeover approach from Saatchi and Saatchi, the insatiable advertising group. Nottingham- shire won the 1987 County Cricket Cham- pionship. The Jockey Club approved Sun- day racing.
THE UNITED States, at the outset of arms control talks with the Soviet Union in Washington, made detailed proposals for the elimination of all US and Soviet intermediate nuclear missiles. The US proposals rule out spot Soviet checks on US cruise missiles in the UK. After talks elsewhere in Washington, Brazil dropped its plans to convert half its $68 billion foreign debt into 35-year low coupon fixed interest bonds. A US treasury official described the scheme as a 'gigantic dressed-up form of default'. Mr Javier Perez de Cuellar, the UN Secretary- General, left the Gulf as he had found it four days earlier: with Iran and Iraq deadlocked. Mrs Elizabeth Dole, the US Transportation Secretary, and the highest ranking woman in the Reagan administra- tion, is to resign. She wants to help her husband, Mr Robert Dole, the Republican leader in the Senate, in his campaign to succeed Mr Reagan as President. New Caledonia voted to remain part of France. In Germany some 20 arrested English soccer fans were handed over to British military police. German policemen had thought the men were members of the Rhine army. Reynolds Tobacco, which makes a third of all cigarettes sold in the US, is to launch the social cigarette. It looks and tastes like a normal cigarette, but does not emit smoke, and puts itself out. However, it is thought to be just as effective as any other cigarette in damaging the lungs of the smoker. DRCL
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