Portrait of the week | 2 July 2011

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Teachers went on strike for a day. The National Association of Head Teachers strongly advised heads not to allow parent volunteers to keep schools open. Public-sector workers chose the same day to strike, also in a dispute over pensions. The UK Border Agency advised against flying that day. Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour party, said he wanted to choose members of the shadow cabinet instead of being bound by elections by the party conference. All but Habitat’s three central London shops went into administration. Thorntons decided to close at least 120 of its sweet shops, transferring many to franchisees. The average person has to use ten personal identification numbers or computer passwords every day, researchers found.

Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, accepted recommendations of a report by Lord Levene intended to reduce inter-service rivalry and to redress a preponderance of senior officers. David Willetts, the universities minister, proposed in a White Paper that universities should publish information about the jobs their graduates obtained. Christopher Shale, the chairman of the Conservative Association of West Oxfordshire, where David Cameron is MP, was found dead in a portable lavatory at the Glastonbury festival. The weather was hot in south-eastern England for two days, and hundreds of trains were cancelled because of expansion of rails and overhead wires. Stolen Victorian postboxes were found to be selling in the United States at £5,000 each.

Abroad

Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, visited Britain. He responded to previous expressions of concern by David Cameron about human rights in China by saying that China and Britain should ‘engage in more co-operation than finger wagging’. He toured the Longbridge factory where MG cars are made from Chinese parts, and signed trade agreements worth £1.4