Portrait of the week | 31 October 2013

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A storm passed over England, with plenty of warning. The strongest gust, of 99mph, was recorded at Needles Old Battery, Isle of Wight. Of 570,000 households that lost power, 160,000 were left without it by sunset. About 200 trees fell on railway lines. A crane collapsed on to the roof of the Cabinet Office in Whitehall. A fourth big energy company, of Britain’s six, announced price rises, making the average increase 9.1 per cent. Tony Cocker, the chief executive of E.on, told the Commons energy committee that he had written to David Cameron, the Prime Minister, suggesting a full investigation of the market. A woman intent upon visiting the Alhambra found she was on an aeroplane to Grenada in the West Indies.

Grangemouth petrochemical works reopened after its workers accepted the survival plan drawn up by its owners Ineos. Stephen Deans, the Unite official at the heart of a dispute between the union and Ineos, resigned from the company. Britain’s gross domestic production grew by 0.8 per cent in the third quarter of the year. The government planned to launch an Islamic bond, a sukuk, next year. The benefit-cost ratio of the HS2 line from London to Birmingham is £2.30 for each pound spent, according to the new government case, having fallen from £2.50. Work to improve the existing north-south rail lines as an alternative would cost £20 billion and require 2,770 weekend closures involving 144,000 hours of work, according to a report by Network Rail and Atkins, the engineering firm. The Labour party began to make doubtful noises about HS2. Sir Anthony Caro, the sculptor, died, aged 89.

The trial began at the Old Bailey of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, and Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World, charged with conspiring with others to listen to voicemails.