Portrait of the Week – 11 June 2005

Mr Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, speaking in the Commons about the promised Bill to hold a referendum on the European constitution, said, ‘Until the consequences of France and the Netherlands being unable to ratify the Treaty are clarified, it would not in our judgment now be sensible to set a date for a second reading.’ But he added, ‘It remains our view that it represents a sensible new set of rules for the enlarged EU.’ Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said, ‘I’m not saying I’ve suddenly woken up and decided the constitution is the wrong thing for Europe to do. It’s a perfectly sensible way forward.’ He then flew off to Washington for talks with President George Bush of the United States, urging him to double America’s $674 million aid to Africa. Miss Cherie Booth, the Prime Minister’s wife, gave a talk in Washington about life at No. 10 Downing Street, for which she was to receive £30,000. Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, flew to Luxembourg for a meeting of EU finance ministers, who wanted Britain to give up its rebate: ‘We will use our veto, if necessary,’ he said, ‘to protect the British position.’ Mr Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport, proposed a national system of road-pricing, depending on how far motorists drive, on a sliding scale according to the congestion of the road, from perhaps 2p a mile on quiet country roads to £1.30 a mile on the busiest roads. The Prince of Wales said he would set up a teacher-training college to ‘underpin timeless principles’. The Revd Maurice Wiles, the doubting Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, died, aged 81. Two men died when a large container of slurry burst at Katesbridge, County Down. November to May had an average of 16.2