Portrait of the week
p resident Brezhnev arrived in Bonn for talks designed to forget about Afghanistan and concentrate on nuclear disarmament in Europe. About 15,000 protesters were kept out of sight. President Reagan rather pre-empted the talks by offering to cancel the deployment of new missiles in Europe in exchange for similar cuts from the Soviet side, but Russia denounced this as a 'propaganda ploy' and 400,000 Dutch demonstrators protested against American plans just the same. President Ceausescu of Romania, alone among Iron Curtain leaders, suggested that the American plans might be worth looking at. Edward Kennedy announced his intention of standing for the White House in 1984. Mrs Rose Kennedy collapsed at 91.
Mr Ian Paisley's attempts to make the province of Ulster ungovernable with a oneday general strike attracted only partial support. A huge police operation in London, employing 16,000 officers to search every lock-up garage in the area, turned up two corpses and over £100,000 worth of stolen goods, but no arms. Waddington, the toy manufacturers, withdrew an 'explosively funny' game about bomb disposal experts blowing themselves up after the Prince of Wales added his support to protests from Mr Stephen Howarth, son of the last one to do so. A booby-trapped toy pistol exploded in Woolwich, injuring two women and a dog.
rr he Government announced plans to overspend by £3,500 million in 1982/3 and to close the Gibraltar shipyard. Mrs Shirley Williams entered the last round of her SDP candidature in the Crosby byelection with opinion-poll majorities in her favour of 5,000-8,500 votes. This would overturn the previous Conservative majority of 19,000. In a heavily Catholic constituency, she was seen to go to church three times on Sunday and take communion twice. Mr David Owen was barracked by students at Sussex University causing an unnamed foundation to withdraw its £500,000 research grant. Mr Benn failed to be elected to the Shadow Cabinet, achieving nevertheless 66 votes despite Mr Foot's proscription of him. Mr Silkin, a unilateralist, was appointed shadow spokesman on defence; Mr Heffer, an anti-Marketeer, shadow spokesman on Europe. Lord Cudlipp, the former Daily Mirror chairman, left the Labour Party. Mr Tariq Ali joined it.
Mr Lech Walesa appealed for food for Poland and Mr Andrei Sakharov, the Nobel Prize winner, started a death fast in Gorky. The trial of 24 men implicated in the murder of President Sadat was briefly delayed following allegations of torture. President Mitterrand announced that he would by-pass parliament to impose his socialist measures by decree.
Strikes closed down ITN and also the car division of British Leyland, where 2,200 men objecting to a proposed cut of 12 minutes from their daily teabreaks voted unanimously to stay out indefinitely after £50 million worth of business had been lost. Further strikes were promised by tanker drivers, and British Leyland announced plans to cut 4,500 jobs from their truck and bus division. Mr Tebbit announced plans to remove union immunity and tighten up on the closed shop. Mr Ray Buckton said he would go to prison rather than cooperate.
The October balance of payments surplus doubled to £316 million. Unemployment was slightly down at 2.954 million. TUC experts claimed the true figure was nearer 4.083 million. With two editors facing possible prison sentences for alleged contempt of court, Fleet Street suddenly became very concerned about prison conditions. The governor of Wormwood Scrubs wrote to The Times describing his prison as a 'penal dustbin' and misgivings were expressed once again about the ancient ritual of 'slopping out'. Two 15-year-old tower blocks were blown up in Newham, East London, to scenes of general jubilation. The surgeon Paul Vickers was sentenced to 17 years for the murder of his wife but his former mistress Pamela Collison was acquitted to scenes of execration and promptly sold her story to the News of the World for a reported £100,000. Similar execration greeted Princess Anne when it was learned that she had watched two tethered buffaloes being attacked and eaten by tigers in Nepal.
V. Korchnoi conceded the world chess championship to A. Karpov. England qualified for the World Cup, beating Hungary 1-0 at Wembley. A football fan was crushed during scuffles on an escalator at Seven Sisters Road. A steep rise in the price of champagne seemed likely after a poor harvest. AAW
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