Portrait of the week

Home President Barack Obama arrived in Britain for a state visit, having fled Ireland a day early lest the ash cloud from the Grimsvötn volcano in Iceland engulf his aeroplane. In Ireland he met his eighth cousin at Moneygall, where he drank a pint of Guinness, said ‘I’ve come home to find the apostrophe we

Home Police decided to investigate an allegation that Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, had persuaded someone else to take penalty points for speeding that he should have incurred. In parliament, Mr Huhne outlined plans for Britain to halve carbon emissions by 2027. Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, outlined plans for a new House of

Home Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader and deputy Prime Minister, said: ‘People want a louder Liberal Democrat voice in government,’ after his party did very badly in local elections and saw its proposal of the alternative vote defeated in a national referendum. Mr Clegg said there would be ‘substantial and significant changes’ to the

Home Prince William was created Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathhearn and Baron Carrickfergus on the morning of his wedding to Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey. The Duchess’s dress was designed by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen. It did not rain and a million or so people cheered in the streets, with 25 million in

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, made a joint statement on Libya with President Barack Obama of the United States and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, saying that ‘so long as Gaddafi is in power, Nato and its coalition partners must maintain their operations’. British and French military officers were being sent to Libya to

Home Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, told the Commons that the government was delaying plans to reform the National Health Service that would give GPs responsibility for commissioning health services. ‘It is not just a question of presentation,’ said Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister. ‘This is also a question of making substantive changes to

Home At a conference on Libya held in London, representatives of more than 40 nations and international bodies declared that Colonel Gaddafi’s regime had ‘lost legitimacy and will be held accountable for their actions’. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, told delegates that attacks would continue until Colonel Gaddafi met UN terms, and that

Home 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

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said, with regard to the crisis in Libya, ‘It is right for us to look at plans for a no-fly zone.’ Earlier, during his tour of the Middle East, he had apologised for the slow evacuation of British citizens from Libya. Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, on being

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, visited Egypt, speaking to Mohamed Tantawi, the head of the armed forces supreme council, and to Ahmed Shafiq, the caretaker Prime Minister. Later, in Kuwait, he said that ‘denying people their basic rights does not preserve stability, rather the reverse’. Before leaving Britain, Mr Cameron had written about the

Home Inflation rose to an annual rate of 4 per cent in January from 3.7 per cent in December, far above the Bank of England’s target of 2 per cent. The rate according to the Retail Prices Index rose to 5.1 per cent from 4.8 per cent. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, defended his idea

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, called for Islamist extremism to be countered by ‘a clear sense of shared national identity that is open to everyone’. Speaking at a security conference in Munich, he said that ‘under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives’. About 1,500 supporters of

Home The Health and Social Care Bill, which changes the organisation of the National Health Service, passed its second reading by 321 votes to 235. Lawyers opined that the European Court of Human Rights required the government to give prisoners in Scotland and Wales the right to vote in May’s elections or risk claims for

Home The gross domestic product of the United Kingdom shrank by 0.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2010 compared with that quarter the previous year, according to initial figures from the Office for National Statistics. Home The gross domestic product of the United Kingdom shrank by 0.5 per cent in the last quarter

Home David Chaytor, the Labour MP for Bury North from 1997 to 2010, was sentenced to 18 months for false accounting under the Theft Act 1968 regarding his claims for parliamentary expenses. Eric Illsley, the Labour MP for Barnsley, who was re-elected last May with a majority of 11,000, was convicted of fraudulently claiming more

Home Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said that the rise in VAT from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent would cost the average family £7.50 a week. George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said: ‘If you look at the population and how much they spend, then VAT is progressive.’ The average price of

Home Nine men were charged with conspiracy to bomb London targets such as the Stock Exchange and the tower of Big Ben before Christmas. Three of the men, aged between 19 and 28, came from Cardiff, two from London and four from Stoke-on-Trent. The Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, Bishop of Winchester, spoke of ‘an imbalance