Portrait of the week | 6 August 2011

This week’s Portrait of the week

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William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said there was ‘not a remote possibility’ of using force against Syria, even with United Nations backing. The Commons defence committee said that cuts to the Armed Forces might prevent their doing whatever was needed after 2015. Mike Clasper, the chairman of HM Revenue & Customs, apologised for its poor performance last year in answering telephone calls and replying to letters. Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, said the government saved £3.75 billion from May 2010 to March 2011 by cutting the Civil Service and renegotiating contracts with suppliers. Lord McFall of Alcluith, in a report for the Workplace Retirement Income Commission said that millions of people face a ‘bleak old age’, with 14 million not saving into a workplace pension scheme at all. Jake Davis, 18, from the Shetland Islands, appeared in court charged with conspiracy to carry out a distributed denial of service attack on the Serious Organised Crime Agency’s website; he was granted bail.

The International Monetary Fund said that Britain’s economic growth would come close to missing the Chancellor’s planned deficit reduction target in this parliament. Barclays reported pre-tax profits of £2.6 billion for the first six months of the year, down by a third from last year, partly because of provision of £1 billion to settle claims for mis-selling of payment protection insurance. It said that the 1,400 staff cuts made this year would be doubled. HSBC reported pre-tax profits for the first six months of the year of £7 billion, up 3 per cent from last year, and it announced job cuts of 25,000 by 2013, none of them in Britain. A BBC survey found that Blackburn Rovers offered a ticket for a Premier League game with a pie, a programme and a cup of tea for just £17.50,