PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Ghost town Mrs Thatcher explained that this week's crucial letter in the Westland scan- dal, one sent on 6 January from the Solicitor-General to Mr Heseltine, had in fact been leaked by the Department of Trade and Industry, on Mr Brittan's orders, and that she fully approved of this, though she did not know it had been done. Mr Brittan, fortified by this expression of confidence, resigned, in order to satisfy the 1922 Committee, and was replaced by Mr Paul Channon. The question then arose: why had Mrs Thatcher, whose press secret- ary and principal private secretary had both approved Mr Brittan's action, re- mained in ignorance of what had happened for 16 days during which the newspapers had hardly talked of anything else? In the subsequent parliamentary debate this question was neither clearly put by Mr Kinnock nor answered by Mrs Thatcher. It did, however, emerge that she had known in advance that the famous letter would be written, and that the Solicitor-General himself had nearly resigned when his letter was leaked. Less news emerged from Wapping, where Mr Murdoch's papers were produced in a heavily guarded build- ing full of computers and devoid of prin- ters. Their place was taken by electricians
after the printing unions refused Mr Mur- doch's surrender terms, and struck against what Mr Tony Dubbins of the NGA called an attempt 'to put ordinary working people almost into conditions of slavery'. Dis- tribution of the papers was imperfect, but much less imperfect than the striking prin- ters had hoped. A Green Paper on the replacement of domestic rates was pub- lished. The 15 by-elections caused by the simultaneous resignation of all Ulster Un- ionist MPs in protest against the Hillsbor- ough agreement resulted in the re-election of 14 Unionists, though on a poll lower than they had hoped for. The 15th, Mr James Nicholson, lost Newry and Armagh to Mr Seamus Mallon of the SDLP. Mr Nicholas Fairbairn rebuked the Bishop of Durham for denying the Divinity of Christ; the Bishop hotly denied denying this, and had difficulty forgiving Mr Fairbairn.
THE space shuttle Challenger blew up in mid-air 72 seconds after takeoff. Among the seven dead astronauts was a teacher, Mrs Christa McAuliffe, who had been chosen from 11,000 applicants for the `citizens in space' programme. Rather more people were killed in South Africa, though not on live television. International efforts to remove neutral onlookers from the civil war in South Yemen ended when only Indians were left there. The insur- gents gained undisputed control of the capital. General Tito Okello, the retiring Ugandan head of state, exhorted his troops to run away, then followed their example. The rebel army occupied Kampala. Three Sikhs were condemned to death for the murder of Mrs Gandhi. A Canadian inquiry decided that the 329 passengers on a jumbo jet which blew up off Cork last year had been victims of a Sikh terrorist bomb. The Danish government, having had its assent to EEC reforms thrown out by the Folket- ing, announced it would hold a referendum on the issue; the Dutch proposed that the reforms go ahead regardless. Voyager 2 reached Uranus after eight years and found two extra moons. Ron Hubbard, the scien- tologist, died, but Senor Augusto Ruschi, a Brazilian naturalist who is suffering from a liver disease induced by touching a poison- ous frog ten years ago, was treated, with the approval of President Sarney, by a medicine man and the chief of his tribe. They rubbed him with a root potion, gave him a decoction of roots to drink, and shared a hallucinogenic cigarette with him. `Now I feel very well,' he announced. ACB
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