Portrait of the Week
While Mr Reagan's emissary to the Middle East, Mr Philip Habib, held peace talks in Jerusalem, Israeli jets bombed targets in the Lebanon on four consecutive days, killing about 200 Palestinian refugees and wounding some 700 others. This was in reprisal for a Palestinian rocket attack in which a 14-year-old Israeli boy died. Mr Reagan deferred delivery of four F-16 jet fighter-bombers to Israel, and an Israeli spokesman said: 'We have a serious problem with the United States.' Military observers speculated that an Israeli ground raid or invasion was imminent. Middle East news overshadowed the summit meeting of Western leaders in Ottawa, which was unable to persuade the Americans to cut their interest rates.
At home, Roy Jenkins came within a whisker of winning Warrington for the Social Democrat Party, trailing only 1,759 votes behind Labour and securing 42 per cent of the vote. The Conservative candidate, a London bus driver, lost three quarters of the Tory vote, down to 2,102 or 7 per cent. After the result Ms Shirley Williams, the former Labour Education minister, said she might be prepared to stand for Croydon. David Steel agreed, but local Liberals refused to take her. No further riots were reported on the British mainland. Magistrates handed out fairly stiff sentences six months for malicious damage, in some cases and Mr Heseltine was appointed to lead an inquiry into the problems of inner cities. Mr David Lane, the race expert, demanded draconian punishments against anyone guilty of racism. Police agreed to pay compensation for the Brixton riot, but then created a certain amount of devastation themselves in a raid on Railton Road, Brixton, apparently in search of petrol bombs. Several houses were taken apart, and substances suspected of contravening the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 were removed. In Poland, Mr Stanislaw Kania was returned as Party Secretary after the first free elections to the Central Committee ever held in the Soviet bloc, defeating both Soviet hardliners and extreme liberals. Polish refugees continued to enter Austria in their thousands. In Russia, the satirist Vladimir Voinovich was formally deprived of his citizenship by Mr Brezhnev for activities hostile and damaging to the prestige of the Soviet Union.
At home, rail unions threatened an all-out strike after British Rail refused to award an 11 per cent pay rise recommended by 'independent' arbitration, but civil servants looked like accepting a £30 flat payment. The Observer, after threatening to close down, gave in to all demands by one of its printing unions, called the NSOPGMP. The National Union of Journalists threatened to expel ten members and deprive them of their jobs for 'unethical' reporting of some black demonstrations in Deptford, and unionised choristers in St Paul's settled for £850 each after threatening not to warble on the Big Day.
Unemployment rose by 171,000 to 2,851,000. England surprisingly won a Test against Australia. Tourists were reported to be shunning London for the Royal weddingpartly because it would be on television, partly for fear of riots and partly, no doubt, because of London hotel prices. The King of Spain refused to attend, despite having a free bedroom at Buckingham Palace, because of Prince Charles's honeymoon plans in Gibraltar. It was claimed by the Sunday Times that MIS had been gravely concerned about Sir Harold Wilson's friendship with Lord Kagan. Mr Alexander (`Terry) Sinclair, the drugs baron and mastermind behind the 'handless corpse' murder, was sentenced to life imprisonment and £1 million costs. Ms Anna Coote and Ms Tessa Gill lost an action against El Vino's Wine Bar for sexual discrimination. Ms Rosie Swale, the round-world yachtsperson, was found guilty of soliciting for the purposes of prostitution in Curzon Street. Mr Leslie Holt, the cat burglar who died after an operation to remove warts from his big toes, was revealed to have been a great friend of Lord Boothby. AA W
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