Portrait of the week | 26 March 2011

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David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that attacks on Libya to protect civilians from Colonel Gaddafi were ‘necessary, legal and right’. He told the Commons that the UN resolution authorising them ‘explicitly does not provide legal authority for action to bring about Gaddafi’s removal from power by military means’. MPs voted by 557 to 13 in support of the military action. The moon came within 221,565 miles of the earth, its closest since 1993.

In a budget that he called fiscally neutral, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced consultation on unifying income tax and National Insurance. He removed 43 tax relief measures to simplify the system. He reduced corporation tax by 1 per cent further to the 1 per cent already announced, but raised the bank levy to compensate. He raised the income tax threshold by £630, with effect from April 2012. He called the 50p tax rate ‘temporary’. There would be 21 new enterprise zones and £100 million would be put into potholes. Water in the south-west will be subsidised. He announced a scheme to help first-time buyers of newly built houses. Charities would benefit from new rules on legacies and gift aid. He increased tax on oil production while oil prices remained high, delayed a planned 1p rise in fuel duty and cut fuel duty by 1p a litre immediately. He delayed a planned rise in air-passenger duty, but imposed a flight tax on private jets. Mr Osborne said £1 billion was being raised by a clamp-down on tax avoidance. The Office for Budget Responsibility reduced its growth forecast from 2.1 to 1.7 per cent for 2011; it predicted inflation for 2011 to remain between 4 and 5 per cent.