Ziggy says...

Leafing through the local library's excellent online newspaper archive service for 1982, 'Gaoling of Briton brings strong protests' happens to catch my eye for July 1st. And I'm upset to read about one Dr Ralph Pinder-Wilson being treated improperly in Afghanistan.

But the power of the internet 32 years later enables me to quickly discover that he was released a fortnight later, and continued a distinguished career until 2008. Phew!

There's an interesting corollary to this. The obit of RP-W that enlightened me about his release suggested that it was at the instigation of George Galloway MP, who was about to visit Afghanistan at the time. The only problem with that is that all sources agree that GG didn't begin his Parliamentary career till 1987, and wasn't even in his former connection with War on Want till 1983. In 1982 he seems to be referred to only as the previous year's chairman of the Scottish Labour Party.

The missing link here is the Times obit of RP-W, apparently published on 10 November 2008, which may repeat the GG story. More when I find it. Who'd've thought a feel-good post about the power of the internet would turn into an intriguing mystery?

Newspaper archive OCR corrections

Not interesting, but I have to record these somewhere since there's no way of submitting them to the originators. OCR or OCD?

Adortion row over grisly find Scobie, William. The Observer (1901- 2003) [London (UK)] 20 June 1982: 12.
Abortion not Adortion

Piectgptin acid rain Mosey, Chris. The Observer (1901- 2003) [London (UK)] 20 June 1982: 13.
Pledge on not Piect...

Grim figures could spell new US farm-led stamp Jackson, Harold. The Guardian (1959-2003) [London (UK)] 29 June 1982: 7.
Slump not stamp