Region suffers Paris link blow: The week that was May 2 to 8, 1991

Public Transport Minister Roger Freeman had also moved to distance himself from claims that he had promised a Leeds-Paris direct link by 1994. He now said the service would “begin as soon as possible”. It had very recently emerged that the cost of the modified trains had become a major stumbling block, with the price set to exceed significantly the cost of the fleet of 80 Trans-Manche already on order for the London-Paris-Brussels service. A further dramatic fall in inflation was on its way, Prime Minister John Major promised in an upbeat speech. He predicted that inflation would “go on falling throughout this year and into the next”. Speaking in the City of London, Mr Major said measures had been put in place to ensure the nation was better equipped than ever before to prevent a recurrence of inflationary trends. But the PM’s euphoria on the eve of local elections was somewhat dented by a warning from a key City analyst that economic recovery in Britain could be so slow that the Conservatives would lose the next general election. David Smith, chief economist with Williams De Broe, said the recovery would not come in time for the party to win a fourth term. Homosexual priests in the Church of England were staunchly defended by the radical and outspoken Bishop of Durham in his newly published book Free To Believe. The Rt Rev David Jenkins said homosexuality was neither unnatural nor abnormal in a moral sense. He added: “I see a significant number of Godly, caring and gentle persons who also happen to be homosexual.” The Bishop’s words, given in an account of his time at Durham, were welcomed by the Rev Richard Kirker, a homosexual activist in the Church. He said he was “delighted”. While some Christian fundamentalists dismissed the Bishop’s statements, the Rev Kirker, general secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said the words would be a support to the more than a quarter of the clergy whom he claimed had a gay sexual orientation – although not all were practising gays. In foreign news, the worst cyclone to hit Bangladesh struck this week, claiming at least 1,200 lives, official reports announced. State-run radio reported that the cyclone, with wind speeds said to have exceeded the storm which killed 100,000 back in 1970, had affected around seven million people. Britain denied that she had ever had plans to mine around the South Pole, as an Antarctica Treaty meeting in Madrid ended with a draft proposal to ban all mineral activity for 50 years. A British official said that the UK had always supported the treaty – which was dedicated to the conservation of the wild continent – and mining there represented a serious threat. Antarctica’s mineral wealth was unknown, although a US survey suggested there could be 45 billion barrels of oil beneath the ice cap. All 39 national delegates signed the treaty, under whose terms the mining ban could only be lifted if three-quarters of the signatories agreed – and after the 50-year ban had expired.