Portrait of the Week – 14 September 2002

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, lent his support to President George Bush of the United States in preparing for war against Iraq. Mr Blair flew to Camp David in Maryland for a three-hour meeting with Mr Bush to agree their strategy. On his return he took up an engagement to visit the Queen at Balmoral. In a message for 11 September to the British in New York the Queen said: ‘We honour the courage and determination of those in our armed forces and others who are striving to bring those responsible for this outrage to justice and to prevent similar atrocities in the future. Right must and will prevail.’ A list of 67 Britons killed that day was released by the Foreign Office. A service at St Paul’s Cathedral attended by the Prince of Wales remembered all who had died. In a speech to the Trades Union Congress, Mr Blair laid out the reasons for acting against Saddam Hussein: ‘To allow him to use the weapons he has or get the weapons he wants, would be an act of gross irresponsibility and we should not countenance it,’ he said. ‘Should the will of the UN be ignored, action will follow.’ He also managed to gain a 50-second ovation for his speech, which had been expected to go less well, concluding with careful words about trade unionism and an invitation: ‘Influence or indulgence. It’s a very simple choice.’ The day before, a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies said that Iraq could produce an atomic bomb in months if it could acquire weapons-grade nuclear material; it also possessed thousands of gallons of anthrax, hundreds of tons of mustard gas and sarin, and had the means to produce more. British Energy, the country’s largest nuclear electricity generator, was given guarantees of £410 million to prevent it from going into administration, a prospect blamed on the low price paid to power stations for electricity; even so its shares collapsed.