Home
A senior figure in the Conservative party with strong social connections to David Cameron, the Prime Minister, was reported by the Telegraph and Times to have said that Conservative constituency associations ‘are all mad swivel-eyed loons’. Lord Feldman, the party’s co-chairman, said it was not he. Mr Cameron sent an email to party activists saying: ‘I am proud of what you do. And I would never have around me those who sneered or thought otherwise.’ The rumpus erupted as Conservative voters defected to the UK Independence Party, and Conservative MPs became impatient with the leadership of Mr Cameron. It followed a rebellion by 116 Conservative backbenchers, who had voted for an amendment regretting the absence from the Queen’s Speech of a bill paving the way for a referendum on the EU. It preceded a Commons votes on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, which the government won only through a deal with Labour, with 133 Tories voting against it. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland voted to allow actively homosexual men and women to become ministers.
Sir David Nicholson, criticised over the hospital scandal in Mid Staffordshire, is to retire as the chief executive of the NHS next year. The FTSE 100 index reached 6,803.87, its highest finish since late 1999. The annual rate of inflation, measured by the consumer prices index fell to 2.4 per cent in April from 2.8 per cent in March; as measured by the retail prices index, 2.9 per cent from 3.3 per cent. The operating profits of the Royal Mail, shortly to be privatised, rose to £403 million. The Ashmolean acquired Millais’s portrait of John Ruskin in the Trossachs, painted in 1853 when Effie Ruskin was transferring her affections to Millais. The WRVS changed its name to the Royal Voluntary Service.
Britain offered Afghan interpreters who worked on the frontline for a year or more a five-year visa. The BBC apologised for a Newsnight report last year about the charity Help for Heroes that gave the false impression it was responsible for shortcomings in support offered to wounded servicemen. The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry opened a new recovery centre for Help for Heroes at Tidworth, Wiltshire. The European Commission is to ban refillable bottles or dipping bowls of olive oil on restaurant tables from next year. Gandhi’s sandals sold for £19,000 at an auction at Ludlow Racecourse, Shropshire.
Abroad
In Syria there was fierce fighting over the town of Qusair, controlled by the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad for several months, as government forces were given support by Hezbollah fighters. In Iraq, a bomb outside a Sunni mosque killed at least 41, and three days later, car bombs intended to kill Shia left at least 60 people dead. Ten policemen abducted on another day were found murdered. Hundreds of Islamist fighters were said to have fled from a Nigerian government offensive in the north-east, into Niger and Cameroon. Spain deported Noureddine Ziani, a Moroccan, to Morocco, on the grounds of a ‘threat to national security’; his supporters claimed it was for his championing Catalan independence. The King of Spain gave up his 136-foot yacht, Fortuna. In Tunisia a man died of the so-called novel coronavirus, which has killed about 20 in Saudi Arabia and Birmingham.
In France, President François Hollande passed into law a bill legalising same-sex marriage, but another big demonstration against it was planned for 26 May, with a poster headed ‘Manif Monstre’ showing Christiane Taubira, the minister of justice, as King Kong. Since Miss Taubira is black, there were then accusations of racism. President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan ordered an inquiry into why his country gave Russia nul points in the Eurovision Song Contest after Russia had given the maximum 12 points to Azerbaijan’s entry.
Germany objected to a European Commission proposal to impose a 47 per cent import duty on Chinese solar panels, €21 billion worth of which it exported to Europe in 2011. President Barack Obama of the Unites States sacked Steven Miller, the head of the Inland Revenue Service, which has been accused of focusing scrutiny on groups supporting the Tea Party. Yahoo agreed to buy Tumblr, the New York-based blogging service, for $1.1 billion in cash. A tornado swept through a suburb of Oklahoma City, killing at least 24. Inhabitants of the East Coast of America braced themselves as a once-in-17-year swarm of cicadas began, which will outnumber them by 600 to one. CSH
Comments