- -Portrait of the Week— THE SONG the herald angels sang
could be heard amid the general discord, but often only faintly. Britain turned the screw on Rhodesia tighter still, by announcing oil sanctions forthwith, the Tories retaliated by turning the screw on the govern- ment, and the North Vietnamese pooh-poohed re- ports that they had put out a peace feeler toward America.
MR, WILSON flew back from the US after being snubbed by the African states at the United Nations, and a cluster of these states broke off relations with Britain. At Westminster, a Labour M P abstained on the vote to ditniss the Territorial Army, reducing Labour's majority to one: how- ever, the Daily Mail published with evident per- plexity a National Opinion Poll showing Labour 18.5 per cent ahead. After the Plowden Report politicians saw the aircraft industry leaving steel standing in the state ownership stakes, and the Prime Minister apologised for a libel during the election campaign. Four American astronauts staged' a successful rendezvous in space, two of them remaining up there for a fortnight. Somerset Maugham died. President de Gaulle at last won his majority.
DAv BY DAY the countdown for the great Feast of St. Consumer went ahead. Prices and wages, it was noted, had risen to new peaks (not matched by productivity, unhappily) and the Customs and Excise reported that we were spending more than ver on smoking and drinking. But people were buying lavishly in all directions, it seemed, what with an actress paying £230 for a Christmas tree made of mink, and the shops everywhere report- ing unprecedented trade. One income which had fallen, nevertheless, was that of Oxfam—consider= ably down on the previous year. The Atomic Energy Authority proffered an item of seasonable cheer: the fall-out of Strontium-90 over Britain was smaller this year. The Dead Sea Scrolls attracted attention at the British Museum, and Mr. John Allegro wrote so many articles on the subject that it was said he ought to change his name to Fortissimo. The new 70 m.p.h. speed limit was introduced in, time to mar, the fun of some home-bound Christmas party-goers, but the seasonable traffic story to end them all, however, came from the New Kent Road: a No. 188 bus, stranded there amid the cars, was abandoned by its crew when their duty time ended, was duly removed by the police because the relief crew was held up elsewhere by a traffic jam, and sub- sequently the bus had to be recovered from the police pound on payment of £2 by a London Transport inspector.
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