Portrait of the week | 24 April 2014

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David Cameron, the Prime Minister, appeared in public with George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer — the first time they had been photographed as a couple for four years — to draw attention to infrastructure projects. Mr Cameron mentioned in an article for the Church Times that Britain is a Christian country, which made 55 celebrity atheists write to the Daily Telegraph to deny it. A new Family Court came into being, committed to resolving within 26 weeks cases about the care of children, rather than the average of 56 weeks recorded in 2011. Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrat pensions minister, said that the government could help people by telling them when they would die. A black and white photograph by David Bailey, aged 76, of the Queen was released for her 88th birthday. Two earthquakes in two days hit Oakham, Rutland; no damage was reported.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, HM Chief Inspector of Schools in England, is to take personal charge of Ofsted’s investigation of claims that some schools in Birmingham have been taken over by Muslim extremists. Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, launched an investigation under Peter Clarke, the former Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism chief. The Foods Standards Agency found that 43 out of 145 samples of lamb takeaways contained other meat instead. Manchester United sacked David Moyes as its manager, ten months after he succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson. Peter Moores, the England cricket coach from 2007 to 2009, was reappointed. A mother and two children found that their car had caught on fire in the lion enclosure at Longleat; ‘It was very difficult to know what to do,’ she remarked later, ‘Keep in the car or get out of the car.’

Ukip launched a £1.5 million poster campaign, paid for by Paul Sykes, a former donor to the Conservatives.