The Sun dated Monday December 8th
1975
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As part of the 14 month IRA mainland campaign a
4 man active service unit had bombed a Mayfair restaurant and four weeks later
returned armed and in a stolen car. They were spotted by plain-clothes police
and trailed to Balcombe Street in Marylebone where they took a couple hostage
in their council flat. The police sourounded the flats and a siege ensued that
lasted from 6th December until the IRA men surrendered on the 12th.
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Trouble between Iceland and Britain over fishing off the
coast of Iceland had been going on since the 1890’s. In 1972 Iceland extended
it’s ‘shove off this is our sea’ policy to 50 miles off their coast and then in
November 1975 they declared a 200 mile no fishing zone. British trawlers with
Royal Navy protection ignored this limit. I May 1976 Iceland threatened to
close the strategic NATO base at Keflavík and the British government gave in
and ordered the British fishermen to stay out of the 200 mile zone.
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Kay Webb edited the Puffin Post which encouraged children to
read – especially books published under Penguin’s Puffin imprint. She continued
as editor up to 1980 so appears to have survived this little faux-pas.
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The metrification of the UK began in 1965 and is
still going on. We may buy sugar by the kilogram but drive miles to get it at
so many miles-per-hour. Those of us who are old enough to remember still have an
illogical affection for stones, pounds and ounces; pounds, shilling and pence;
Fahrenheit temperatures and acre fields.
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Claire Rayner ran the agony-aunt column in the
Sun from 1973 to 1980.
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The Race Relations Act was passed in 1965 to try to stop the
rampant anti-Black discrimination that faced many immigrants during the 1950’s
and early 60’s. I would have thought that one area in which discrimination was
rare was the music industry. The Blues Boom in the clubs of London, Manchester
and other cities gave regular employment to black, white and mixed colour groups
by the dozen, if not hundreds.
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This is referring to ‘The New Avengers’ which was first
aired in 1976 and starred Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt and ‘girl of the
seventies’ Joanna Lumley.
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After 7 or 8 Top 10 hits in the late 1960’s Englebert
Humperdink settled into a long career of album releases and numerous stage
performances including Las Vegas. In 2012 he represented the UK at the annual
farce that is the Eurovision Song Contest. He won 12 points and came in one
from last, beating Norway.
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The European leg of the US car manufacturer Chrysler was
finally sold to Peugeot for a nominal $1 in 1978.
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Despite regular TV work from 1970 onwards it would be
another 14 years before Pauline Quirke really broke through with her role as
Sharon Theodopolopodous in ‘Birds of a Feather’.
And finally, the 3 page ‘Special Pullout’ promised on the
front page. Do you hang terrorists or
not? A question still relevant today.
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