Portrait of the Week – 14 January 2006

Mr Charles Kennedy, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, called a press conference and said, ‘Over the past 18 months, I’ve been coming to terms with, and seeking to cope with, a drinking problem…. I’ve not had a drink for the past two months and I don’t intend to in the future.’ He invited rivals to stand against him for the leadership in an election by the party’s 73,000 members. But two days later, after 25 MPs had said they would not serve with him, he resigned, and Sir Menzies Campbell, 64, rapidly put his name forward, to be followed by Mr Mark Oaten, 41, while Mr Simon Hughes, 54, hesitated. The results will be known by 2 March. Mr David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative party, said he would no longer seek the establishment of more grammar schools. Asked about the prospects of Mr Gordon Brown succeeding him as leader of the Labour party, Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, spoke of his ‘weight and experience and strength and power’. Later Mr Blair, in a speech at No. 10 Downing Street, said that ‘spitting at an old lady on her way to the shops’ should be punished by an on-the-spot fine of £100. Launching a campaign under the title ‘Respect’, he said that neighbours causing a ‘persistent and serious nuisance’ would be evicted, even from their own private property, which could then be ‘sealed’ for three months; he said that children under ten would be served with antisocial behaviour orders, and that a National Parenting Academy would be set up. Lord Stratford, formerly Tony Banks, a Labour politician and one-time sports minister, died, aged 62. Two British passport-holders originally from Colombia were jailed for 19 and 17 years after being found guilty of smuggling a ton of cocaine a year into Britain, with 20,000 people in Colombia being involved in laundering the takings.