PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
`They've put James Anderton in charge of traffic control.'
Rumours of scandals in the City abounded. The Government, uneasy about possible political damage, proposed to increase the maximum jail sentence for convicted insider dealers from two to seven years, and Mrs Thatcher conceded in the Commons that she might yet decide to end self-regulation in the City. BTR dropped its takeover bid for the Pilkington glass manufacturing company, but not before Mr Paul Channon, the Trade and Industry Secretary, had been criticised from all sides of the House for refusing to refer the bid to the Monopolies Commission. Following the sacking of Mr Ernest Saunders as chairman of Guinness, two of his former supporters on the board resigned, and so did two more directors of Morgan Gren- fell. There were doubts about a sum of £25 million paid out by Guinness for so-called 'advice and services' at the time of the company's successful takeover bid for Dis- tillers. Workers at the Caterpillar earth- moving machinery factory near Glasgow started a sit-in after its American owners announced it was to close. The Home Secretary, Mr Douglas Hurd, re-opened
the cases of the six men jailed 12 years ago for the Birmingham pub bombings. Peter Robinson, Deputy Leader of the Demo- cratic Unionist Party, was fined Ir£15,000 after pleading guilty to unlawful assembly in the Republican village of Clontibret. Mr David Winnick's Private Member's Bill seeking to give free television licences to pensioners was voted down, as was Mr Geoffrey Dickens's proposal to re- introduce the death penalty for child murderers. The Chief Constable of Grea- ter Manchester, Mr James Anderton, told a radio interviewer that he believed that God might be using him as a prophet. Even Mr Anderton's friends doubted the wis- dom of his saying so. As pipes began to burst in the thaw, some plumbers charged up to £160 an hour for their services.
THE Communist government in Kabul unilaterally declared a ceasefire in the long-running civil war against Afghan re- bels, but an announcement that the Soviet Union had agreed on a timetable for the withdrawal of its troops from the country was greeted with scepticism in the West.
The Mujahedin rebels rejected the cease; fire and the government's offer of 'national' reconciliation'. Iranian forces continue' their onslaught on the Iraqi port of 133sra, and were reported to be very close to to," suburbs of the city. Hu Yaobang, Geneo", Secretary of the Communist Party in Chit na, was forced, as part of a drive again!, 'bourgeois liberalism', to resign. The M,11', lim chief who had led a five-day upris111° against President Aquino of the ?hilly pines presented her with a flower of peace' ; In the Irish Republic, a general election was called after four Labour Party cablif.s ministers resigned from Dr FitzGeral'„ government. Two men were shot dead at hotel in Drogheda, apparently as a result , of a quarrel among members of the INLI't; The railway strike in France came to a I end, but in Greece there was a genera, strike. The appointment of Mr Robe" Gottlieb as editor of the New Yorker' supplanting the 79-year-old Mr Wilhain Shawn, met resistance. Over 150 staff ,°edo the magazine, who objected to an out52.ra appointment, signed a letter asking "ki
not to accept the job. 1ZP
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