- -Portrait of the Week— THE GUIDING LIGHT IS GOING OUT
all over Eng- land : last Thursday Mr. Macmillan announced. plans for a National Incomes Commission. As Yet unnamed public-spirited men will inquire into key wage claims, pronouncing on them in the national interest. Though TUC secretary Mr. Woodcock condemned Nicky at birth as `.ex-
tremely tr -
naive, innocent and childish,' Ministers still 'hope to give it life. Meanwhile a gale of change blew through the corridors of the Treasury : the retirement of Sir Frank Lee and Sir Norman Brook meant promotion for the Young and the brave. It also gives the Govern- ment a chance to drag the Treasury kicking into the twentieth century. On Tuesday the final instal- ment of L535m. borrowed from the IMF last Year was repaid. Post Office profits and Paris hemlines went down: crime figures went up. The Government decided to buy the Leonardo cartoon for the nation, although the nation had shown it did not wish to buy the cartoon for itself. Meanwhile the Minister of Health refused to give compensation for the 800 deformed thalidomide children, and the Royal Shakespeare Company rnPany prepared to abandon its tenure of the Aldwych Theatre, for want of a £50.000 govern- ment subsidy. So the Leonardo returns .to its cup- board for a century, and the Shakespeare re- turns to its Stratford. And the deformed chil- dren?
IF A CLOD BE WASHED AWAY by the EEC, Europe is the less' or so it seemed last weekend when Commonwealth food guarantees caused the burning of midnight oil in Brussels. The Six de- clined Mr. Heath's pleas for 'reasonable outlets' and thirty-seven Tory and ninety Labour MPs rushed in with shrill accusations of sell-outs.
had Mr. Bury, Australian Air Minister, nad to resign for the faux pas of saying Britain's entry would hardly affect Australia. In Algeria Ben Bella and Ben Khedda still fluttered like per- manent scarecrows on the horizon: Ben Bella arrested and then released a deputy Prime Minis- ter, Mr: Boudiaf. More important, even the pre- tence of authority was on the wane. In the Congo President Tshombe and Mr. Adoula indicated their lasting mutual scorn, and the Union Miniere again refused an American request to pay taxes 10 the central Leopoldville government. Mutter- 11;185 and counter-mutterings began again over
: mysterious explosions took place in the Rumanian Embassy in London. Russia launched another rocket-ship, Cosmos 7, and a Russian
n ,:uating dry dock collided with the Goodwin lightship.
PARKINSON WAS RIGHT: a Commons inquiry re- vealed that while the Army has decreased by 20 Fier cent. since 1956, the number of senior officers ria.s. increased, especially the completely desk- uclen• The police pulled a fast one on the art t,h_ieves. recovering the vast O'Hana Gallery haul ;one fell swoop. The Duke of Wellington re- !ins in hiding. Not in hiding are approvers of ui 7—all fifty of them--who, aided by specta- tors. Police and reporters, have gained too much Publicity in squalid six-minute semi-riots in Bir- ini e,,in,,g,ham and East London. £10,000 worth of Gal costs for Mr. Gulbenkian, whose action t'grainst the BBC won him £2—which hardly pays o his mid-morning coffee. Main shock in the refkiC team for Australia was the omission of any °gist
:arm bowler, even though Home Office patho- Dr
the . • Camps said that a reliable bowler was latest insurance against possible accidents. sure discarded was Blue Water, a surface-to- surface guided missile that seems likely to join we Streak in the dustbin.
THE SILLY SEASON! is in full swing: iced porridge willaetre?e on sale in England shortly; Hollywood so o`es Jayne Mansfield is trying to make a real ' her divorce for thc second time in three Months endor_' and Prince Charles received a glowing tk, e.,s1 terin report from Gordonstoun. At least 0'1,7._ no need for his father to tell him to do the "c ringer exercise.
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