The Spectator

Portrait of the Week – 15 March 2003

A speedy round-up of the week's news

Britain joined the United States and Spain in tabling an amendment to the draft resolution before the Security Council of the United Nations, reading: ‘Iraq will have failed to take the final opportunity afforded by resolution 1441 unless on or before 17 March 2003 the Council concludes that Iraq has demonstrated full, unconditional, immediate and active co-operation with its disarmament obligations.’ Miss Clare Short became the first Cabinet minister to threaten resignation if Britain went to war without securing a UN vote; to add injury to Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, she accused him of recklessness over Iraq and being ‘reckless with our government, reckless with his own future, position and place in history’. Mr Ron Davies announced that he would not stand again in May for his seat in the Welsh assembly after telling the Sun, which was hounding him, that he had visited Tog Hill near Bath, a place of resort for homosexuals, to watch badgers; ‘I feel badly bruised,’ he said at a press conference. More than 20 Tory MPs voted with the Labour majority to abolish Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which prohibits promotion of homosexuality in state schools; Mr Iain Duncan Smith, the Leader of the Opposition, voted for its retention, which annoyed some ‘modernisers’ in the party. A Home Office white paper on anti-social behaviour proposed on-the-spot fines for children of ten caught riding bicycles on the pavement. Adam Faith, the pop singer who topped the charts in 1959 with ‘What Do You Want (If You Don’t Want Money)’, died of a heart attack, aged 62, after performing at the Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent. The soap opera Crossroads, revived two years ago, will end in the summer.

The United States made it clear again that it would go to war with Iraq if it did not comply with disarmament requirements, even if the United Nations gave no further backing to such a move.

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