The Spectator

Portrait of the Week – 16 August 2018

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Unemployment fell by 65,000 to 1.36 million — at 4 per cent the lowest level since 1975. The economy in the United Kingdom grew by 0.4 per cent in the second quarter, compared with 0.2 per cent in the first. The rate of inflation rose a jot from 2.4 to 2.5 per cent, measured by the Consumer Price Index. Sports Direct, run by Mike Ashley, agreed to buy the House of Fraser chain of 59 department stores for £90 million after it had gone into administration. Homebase said it was closing 42 of its 241 stores. Marks & Spencer closed seven clothes stores as part of its programme to close 100 by 2022. Ofcom fined Royal Mail £50 million for anti-competitive behaviour. Citizens Advice said that it would be realistic to extend the 2020 deadline for installing smart meters in 30 million homes and businesses to 2023. Sir V. S. Naipaul, the writer who won a Nobel Prize and the Booker Prize, died, aged 85.

Factions in the Conservative Party, mirroring Remainers and Brexiteers, denounced or praised Boris Johnson’s article in the Daily Telegraph from last week, which had opposed a total ban on the Muslim full face veil but described it as ridiculous. Jacob Rees-Mogg likened to a ‘show trial’ Mr Johnson’s referral to an investigatory panel to see if he had breached the party code of conduct: ‘Could it be that there is a nervousness that a once and probably future leadership contender is becoming too popular and needs to be stopped?’ Members of the Conservative party were sent letters advocating the proposals for Brexit put forward by Theresa May, the PM. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, said he had been present but not ‘involved’ in wreath-laying at a memorial ceremony in Tunisia in 2014 for people linked to Black September, the terrorist group that killed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

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