Portrait of the week | 3 March 2016

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An official analysis by the Cabinet Office said that if Britain left the EU it would lead to a ‘decade of uncertainty’. Opponents of Britain remaining in the EU called the report a ‘dodgy dossier’. George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that the economy would suffer a ‘profound economic shock’ if Britain left, echoing a communiqué of the G20 which referred to ‘the shock of a potential UK exit’. Boris Johnson revised his suggestion that a vote to leave could bring about a better deal from Brussels; ‘Out is out,’ he told the Times. Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, declared that ministers opposing government policy on the referendum should not be shown government papers on the matter. Branches of McDonald’s and KFC banned under-18s from eating inside because of disturbances in Stoke-on-Trent.

Barclays announced a fall in profits and reduced its stake in Africa. An extra £8 billion in income tax was raised by cutting the highest rate from 50p to 45p, according to figures from HM Revenue and Customs cited by George Osborne. Lord Feldman, the chairman of the Conservative party, hatched plans to axe hundreds of local party associations, to be replaced by regional ‘hubs’. Tony Blackburn, the disc jockey, aged 73, was sacked by the BBC after the director-general, Lord Hall of Birkenhead, said that his evidence ‘fell short of the standard required’ by the inquiry by Dame Janet Smith into sex abuse carried out at the BBC by Jimmy Savile. Amazon struck a deal to sell goods from the supermarket Morrisons. A meteor momentarily lit up skies over Aberdeenshire.

Three brothers of Pakistani heritage who raped and sexually exploited 15 teenage girls in Rotherham were jailed for 35, 25 and 19 years. The son of another convicted member of their gang was found guilty of witness intimidation.