TERPSICHORE'S FIRE
8. AND SO TO BED
Tonight you're mine completely
You give your love so sweetly
Tonight the light of love is in your eyes
But will you love me tomorrow?
Is this a lasting treasure
Or just a moment's pleasure?
Can I believe the magic of your sighs?
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Tonight with words unspoken
You say that I'm the only one
But will my heart be broken
When the night meets the morning Sun?
I'd like to know that your love
Is love I can be sure of
So tell me now, and I won't ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow?
So tell me now, and I won't ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow?
The Shirelles
Golden October. With the rapidly shortening days, the leaves turn first from green to yellow, then to red and brown and begin to fall. This was an eventful month. At 02:54am on the morning of October 12th there was a terrific explosion, tearing into the night. The entire centre section of the Grand Hotel in Brighton was completely devastated by an enormous IRA bomb, intended to assassinate most of the British cabinet. Many top government members were staying in the hotel during the conservative party conference at the holiday resort on the south coast of England. The blast, which destroyed four floors, killed four people. Those who died included one MP, Sir Anthony Berry, and the wife of the government chief whip, John Wakeham. More than thirty people had to be dug out and pulled from the ruins, many were badly injured. "Ow! Please get off my foot!" Shouted Employment Secretary Norman Tebbitt to firemen, as he and his wife and Mr. Wakeham were hauled out of the rubble. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had a very lucky escape; a bathroom which she had been in just two minutes earlier was completely wrecked. Her husband Dennis escaped without injury as well. It was the most devastating terrorist attack ever perpetrated against British politicians. A few hours later the IRA made a statement and gloated: "Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once." After making the usual public condemnations of the outrage, Mrs. Thatcher concluded by simply saying: "Ah well, life must go on." Within a few hours the Prime Minister and her cabinet were escorted out of Brighton by police for their own safety, in case of any more bombs.
China set off down the capitalist road this month, after thirty-five years of hard line communism. Now, with its economy and industry in a woeful state of inefficiency, the Communist Party Central Committee is looking to free enterprise to solve the economic problems which beset China's vast population. The Committee also promised to increase foreign trade.
Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards as she walked in the garden of her New Delhi home. She was on her way to a meeting with the actor Peter Ustinov, who was making a TV documentary about her. There seems no doubt that her murder was an act of revenge for ordering Operation Blue Star, the storming of the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the Sikhs' holiest shrine, last June. Mrs. Gandhi's son, Rajiv, was sworn in as her successor within hours of the assassination. As midnight approached he broadcast an appeal for calm as violence flared between Hindus and Sikhs across the nation.
