PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Mr Levi EshICol, Prime Minister of Israel, died of a heart- attack at seventy-three. General Yigal Anon, the Deputy Prime Minister, took over for the present. El Fatah, the Arab terrorist organisation, claimed to have killed Mr Eshkol by shelling his home. France was furious with Britain for giving the other Com- mon Market countries an account of confiden- tial talks between Mr Christopher Soames, the British ambassador in Paris, and General de Gaulle. President Nixon arrived in London and his visit was generally accounted a success. He refused to be drawn into the European im- broglio, but reaffirmed his belief in a special relationship between Britain and the us. The Bac apologised after complaints from Downing Street about the BBC'S reporting of the visit.
Captain Terence O'Neill was returned Ulster with nothing like the majority which had been predicted for him by The Times's Marplan Survey. In Prague, another student burned himself to death is Wenceslas Square. General Ivan Pavlovsky, Russian Commander- in-Chief of the Warsaw Pact forces which in- vaded Czechoslovakia, was created a Hero of the Soviet Union, Russia's highest award for bravery. In Madrid, a cabinet split led by the Catholic pressure group Opus Dei threatened General Franco. In Vietnam, the tong-awaited Vietcong offensive was launched.
The Prime Minister's promise of an after- Christmas ministerial reshuffle in the lower echelons -turned out to involve the appoint- ment of Baroness Scrota as Minister of State in the Department of Health and Social Security,.to replace Stephen Swingler, who died last week. Mr Peter Shore released his 'National Plan Mark 2' promising 'a further period of great restraint in home demand.' The Ford strike was declared official by the engineering union, with 15,1)00 members involved, but un- official by a majority of the other unions. Be- cause of strikes, the 'Ideal Home' exhibition was postponed indefinitely. The Rev David Sheppard, the former Test cricketer, was appointed Bishop of Woolwich. Dr Mervyn Stockwood, Bishop of Southwark, wrote in the Evening Standard: 'Enoch's evil speech last summer was the equivalent of a foul smell. Until Powell let off his fart, white and coloured lived happily together.'
A prisoner detained in Rampton mental hos- pital for three and a half years on two charges of sexual assault was found to be innocent and released. Mr Peter Walker, thirty-six, Shadow Housing Minister, married a bride of nineteen. Figures for tobacco imported in 1968 were the highest for seven years. Mr Michael Fells, a drug addict with no scientific quali- fications, worked as a £2,000 a year scientist on a secret missile project for six months with- out being discovered, having passed govern- ment security clearance under an assumed name, without producing any documents, and on the assurance that he was an old Etonian. He was sentenced to nine months.
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