Sunday, 22 September 2013

Balcombe Street Siege

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 KeflavĂ­k 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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