The Spectator

Portrait of the Week – 5 April 2003

A speedy round-up of the week's news

An ICM poll in the Guardian found that 52 per cent approved of the war and 34 per cent opposed it; among Conservatives approval was 61 per cent, among Labour supporters 59 per cent and among Liberal Democrats 31 per cent. Mr Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, told Parliament that, with 45,000 British servicemen already sent to the war, ‘what I am ruling out, at this stage at any rate, is the necessity for any substantial increase’. Mr Robin Cook, who resigned as Leader of the Commons before the war started, wrote in the Sunday Mirror: ‘I have already had my fill of this bloody and unnecessary war. I want our troops home and I want them home before more of them are killed.’ But on the day the article came out he said: ‘I am not in favour of abandoning the battlefield.’ By 2 April, British fatalities totalled 27: five killed in combat, 17 killed in accidents and five by ‘friendly fire’. British forces closed in on Basra, after a hoped-for uprising there came to nothing; Royal Marines took some outlying suburbs. The Black Watch undertook foot patrols of the captured town of Zubayr wearing Tam o’ shanters instead of helmets. Two Algerian members of al-Qa’eda, Brahim Benmerzouga and Baghdad Meziane, who had entered Britain illegally, were convicted of fraud and of funding terrorism and sentenced to 11 years. Viscount Ullswater was elected to replace the Viscount of Oxfuird as one of the 90 hereditary peers allowed to sit in the Lords; 423 hereditary peers voted in order of preference for 81 candidates (of whom 37 received no votes and 15 only one) and after 42 counts Viscount Montgomery was beaten by 151 to 116. Lord Sainsbury of Turville, a science minister, gave the Labour party another 2.5

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in