Portrait of the Week – 2 July 2005

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, gave a 30-minute speech to the European Parliament in Brussels, in advance of Britain’s assumption of the six-monthly presidency of the European Union, which began on 1 July. He described himself as a ‘passionate pro-European’ committed to ‘Europe as a political project’. He said, ‘Some have suggested I want to abandon Europe’s social model. But tell me, what type of social model is it that has 20 million unemployed in Europe?’ He called for change. ‘It is time to give ourselves a reality check — to receive the wake-up call. The people are blowing the trumpets around the city walls. Are we listening?’ The Queen reviewed 136 ships from 36 nations in the Solent to mark the 200th anniversary of Trafalgar. A study by 14 professors at the London School of Economics found that introducing identity cards would cost between £10.6 billion and £19.2 billion, against the government estimate of £7 billion; the LSE estimate would be at least £170 instead of £93 per person. The second reading of the enabling Bill for identity cards was carried by 314 to 283, a majority of 31, against the normal government majority of 67; the Bill now passes to the Lords. The Inland Revenue admitted that 30,000 people had wrongly been charged a £100 penalty for sending in tax returns late when they hadn’t. In the High Court more than 48,000 shareholders in Railtrack claimed that Mr Stephen Byers, as the former secretary of state for transport, was guilty of misfeasance for ‘expropriating’ the company in 2001. Transport for London banned advertisements on buses for holidays in North Cyprus. Mr Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, expressed support for a monorail being built above the Thames, on the southern bank. A German company plans a 1,007ft-tall block at 22 Bishopsgate, London.