Portrait of the week | 29 October 2011

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David Cameron, the Prime Minister, insisted on being present, along with leaders of the 10 EU countries not part of the eurozone, at a summit on the crisis surrounding the currency bloc. At an earlier summit of leaders of all 27 EU countries, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France told Mr Cameron: ‘You say you hate the euro, you didn’t want to join, and now you want to interfere in our meetings,’ according to diplomatic sources. Eighty-one Conservative MPs (the two tellers included) voted against the government on a back-bench motion endorsing the need for a referendum on EU membership. ‘There’s no — on my part — no bad blood, no rancour, no bitterness,’ Mr Cameron said afterwards. All three main parties had applied a three-line whip against the motion, which was defeated 483 to 111. Mr Cameron had said it was ‘not the right time — at this moment of economic crisis — to launch legislation that includes an in/out referendum’. Edmundo Ros, the Latin American bandleader, died, aged 100.

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Of those arrested in the August riots, 46 per cent were black, 42 per cent white and 7 per cent Asian, according to new Ministry of Justice figures. Ninety per cent were male; 76 per cent had previous convictions or cautions; about half were under 21; 13 per cent were members of gangs (in London 19 per cent). During the riots, 2,584 shops or businesses were looted or vandalised, 664 people mugged, and 231 homes burgled or vandalised; 1,984 people had appeared before the courts. Domestic applications to universities for 2012 were 12 per cent lower than last year, according to Ucas, the admissions service. St Paul’s Cathedral remained closed for the first time since the war because anti-capitalist protesters had pitched tents outside.