Hooligans put United in Crisis: The Week That Was August 30 to September 5 1982

Chairman Manny Cussins said: “If the FA decide to close Elland Road because of last Saturday’s trouble at Grimsby or inflict a heavy fine, our present financial position is such that we would have to consider calling in the Receiver.

“With our commitments we cannot afford to pay heavy fines or lose income.” He also asked the Football League for advice on how to deal with hooligans who travel to away matches.

Rioting fans caused an estimated £5,000 to the Blundell Park ground the previous week, following a similar fracas at the end of the last season, which left £10k worth of wreckage at West Bromwich’s Albion stadium.

A controversial Labour MP had to be hauled away from Mrs Thatcher in an extraordinary incident outside a Glasgow hotel. The PM was left shocked and white-faced after Ron Brown, the member for Edinburgh Leith, ran at her, shouting “Is this Poland?”, flailing his arms wildly just inches from her face. He was apparently trying to wave the pay slip of a low paid worker in front of her.

Before he could touch her, Mr Brown was flung against a wall by five policemen, then carried away, still yelling. He was later fined £50 for breaching the peace.

Meanwhile, during the Gower by-election campaign, Industry Secretary Patrick Jenkin claimed this week that the Labour Party had been taken over by “Benn’s storm-troopers”.

In a rousing speech, Mr Jenkin said: “...there can hardly be a Labour supporter in the country who doesn’t see that behind the mask of Michael Foot there lies in wait the face of Tony Benn.”

In foreign news, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation Yasser Arafat was forced out of his Beirut headquarters after more than a decade. He left Lebanon following the Israeli invasion of that country three months previously.

The original aim of the invasion was to destroy Palestinian guerrilla bases near Israel’s northern border, but forces pushed all the way to Beirut.

Mr Arafat’s departure was the culmination of an agreed evacuation of the PLO from the city, following what was widely seen as a heavy defeat for the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, President Reagan’s surprise move to jump start the Middle East peace process appeared to have put the US on a collision course with Israel.

The Israeli cabinet rejected US proposals for Palestinian self-government in association with Jordan and a halt to Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. It called the Reagan plan a “formula for national suicide”.

Closer to home, the Provost of Bradford criticised members of the congregation at Bradford Cathedral for being stingy with their contributions to church expenses.

The Very Reverend Brandon Jackson described their offerings as “miserable and parsimonious”, and said the Cathedral would have closed years ago but for the generosity of a few. He added that the situation meant the cathedral could not meet both its own expenses and its commitment to help the Church in the Third World.

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Technology Minister Kenneth Baker said a 30-channel cable TV system could be in homes across more than half the country within two years.

But he promised that many new channels would not mean “...wall-to-wall Dallas”.