Portrait of the week
Some disruption to public services and national newspapers was caused by the TUC's 'day of protest' at the Government's refusal to -allow employees at its com- munications headquarters at Cheltenham (GCHQ) to continue to belong to a trade union. The TUC threatened to stop talking to the Government, and several Conser- vative MPs refused to vote in a debate on the Government's decision. The Employ- ment Secretary, Mr Tom King, said that three quarters of the staff at GCHQ had agreed to forgo union membership in ex- change for a payment of £1,000; Mr Wedgwood Benn, at the end of his cam- paign for the Chesterfield by-election (which the polls suggested he would win with more than 50 per cent of the vote), said the Government was proceeding towards the abolition of democracy. Eggs were thrown at Mrs Thatcher and Mr Cecil Parkinson during visits to, respectively, Warwick and Essex universities. Later Mr Parkinson was ordered to pay maintenance of £3,000 a year for his daughter born to Miss Sara Keays. After the chairman of the Coal Board, Mr Ian McGregor, had been pushed to the ground by a miner in Northumberland, the incident was con- demned by the Prime Minister and describ- ed as 'deeply regrettable' by Mr Kinnock.
Gary Hart, Senator from Colorado, won the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire, the first of the 1984 elec- tion campaign, easily defeating the 'front- runner' and former vice-president, Walter Mondale. The US Marines withdrew from Lebanon, leaving France as the only coun- try still maintaining a 'peacekeeping' force in Beirut. The US battleship New Jersey fired from five miles offshore over the Marines' heads as they abandoned their Beirut airport base, not to President Gemayel's army as they had promised, but to Shiite Moslem militiamen who raised the green flag of Amal, and to other anti- government Moslem troops. The US withdrawal was judged generally to have been a humiliation, though President Reagan continued to speak of it as a 'redeployment to ships offshore'. In the Gulf war, Iran's latest offensive across the Iraqi border led to extravagant claims by both sides, putting the possible number of dead over a period of four days at 21,000. Iran claimed to have crossed the Baghdad- Basra road in several places, and Iraq said it had attacked the oil terminal at Kharg Island. The US expressed concern that British equipment and spare parts were be- ing supplied to Iran, and said that any at- tempt by Iran to prevent the shipment of oil through the Straits of Hormuz would be resisted by force. Seven British mercenaries, imprisoned in Angola in 1976, were released by the government, and 77 foreigners (including 16 British) were captured h, UNITA guerrillas in a raid on diamonn mines in northern Angola. In Washingtorh the Senate approved a Bill to restore the death penalty for certain federal cranes, including espionage and attempting ,t°f assassinate the President. The blocking `, roads by French lorry drivers, which ha u caused a week of chaos, particularly in the Alps, ended after the government agreed to ease frontier restrictions and to hold talks with the Road Transport Federation. British drivers who had been stuck for'aYs each received compensation of 0 francs, but claims from their eirlPloYersIn were resisted by the French government. '- elections to the Basque parliament, the Spanish Socialist Party and the Basque Nationalist Party made gains at the exPerlsed of the Herri Batasuna coalition (end°rse by the terrorist organisation ETA) after the assassination in San Sebastian of a Sociabsc of thee senator, Enrique Casas. The niece East German prime minister took refug with her family in the West German egi bassy in'Prague.
The Prince of Wales attended celebrai tions to mark the independence °. Brunei, and played polo with the Sultan; Princess Anne visited Gambia and 1-)13P n Volta on behalf of the Save the Childr% Fund. At the BBC, Mr Bill Cotton, wh.es was responsible for buying the film se,r1,v The Thorn Birds, replaced Mr Anti!" Singer as managing director of television.r Christina Onassis, aged 33, announced hee intention to marry for the fourth time, nOric of her three previous marriages havi.r,i,; lasted for more than 14 months. The sighting of an Asian olive-backed meacifat pipit in Bracknell, Berkshire, caused grt-he excitement among ornithologists. n. courts, the holder of the British high--1°, y 7e record and a former England ladies hoc" .s player were convicted of separate offenc'es of theft; a Sikh was awarded danlaF g against The Wrekin golf club for ha Los been refused membership; and ina Angeles, a nurse was given leave to stleon doctor for negligence, battery and fratid es the grounds that she had contracted herP SPC from him.
Previous page
