PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
P Tanned legislation announced in the Queen's Speech included the privatisation of the electricity supply and water indus- tries. Whitehall sources said that Mrs Thatcher would advise the Queen against visiting the Soviet Union if she receives an invitation from President Gorbachev when he meets her at Buckingham Palace in December. Mr Kenneth Clarke, the Health Secretary, backed hospital manage- ment who threatened court action against nurses' unions in the pay-regrading dis- pute. Nine soldiers were injured as a car bomb planted by the IRA went off in West Belfast. Unemployment fell sharply last month as all regions benefited from the booming economy. Inflation rose from 5.9 per cent to 6.4 per cent last month — its highest level for more than three years mainly because of increases in mortgage costs. Mr Leon Brittan, the former Home Secretary, outlined ideas allowing Scottish independence within the United Kingdom. The Government's chief inspector of pollu- tion, Mr Rod Perriman, resigned in protest against a system that he believed left his inspectorate understaffed, underpaid, undervalued and underfunded. Sir Roy Strong, the former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, resigned from the Here- ford Cathedral Appeal Committee in pro- test against the sale of the Mappa Mundi, the cathedral's celebrated mediaeval map of the world. Vergers and other lay staff at Canterbury Cathedral were told to go on a `customer care' course after complaints from visitors about allegedly unhelpful, stand-offish and offensive behaviour. Wil- liam Collins, the Scottish publisher, re- jected a £293 million bid from News International, the newspaper group owned by Mr Rupert Murdoch. An RSPCA in- spector, called out to put down a sick greyhound, accidentally shot the dog's owner in the foot. Baroness Lee, widow of Aneurin Bevan and the country's first arts minister, died. She was 84. The former Labour Minister of Transport, Mr. Tom Fraser, who first announced plans for the breathalyser and introduced the 70 m.p.h. limit on Britain's motoways, died aged 77.
THERE were renewed ethnic clashes be- tween Azerbaijanis and Armenians. The former president of South Korea, Chun Doo Hwan, appeared on television to apologise for the misdeeds of his years in power. Mrs Thatcher and President Reagan met at the White House for the last time and hailed their periods of office as a turning point in world history. Miss Be- nazir Bhutto and her Pakistan People's Party claimed victory in the country's general election and the right to form the next government. The Estonian parliament defied the Kremlin by overwhelmingly approving a declaration that its own laws should have supremacy over those of the Soviet Union. Canada's Conservative par- ty, led by the Prime Minister, Mr Mul- roney, won a majority in the country's general election, ensuring a free trade agreement with the United States. Presi- dent Saddam Hussein of Iraq ordered his eldest son, Uday, to be tried for the murder of a presidential aide, who was killed last month after being hit with a stick. Vietnamese refugees resorted to cannibalism when their boat went helpless- ly adrift in the South China Sea. Seven of the 58 survivors, rescued by Filipino fisher- men, were arrested for killing and eating fellow passengers. Christina Onassis, the multi-millionaire daughter of the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, died from a heart attack; she was 37. RStJR
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