Portrait of the Week – 11 December 2004

The Army Board approved a scheme to amalgamate all 19 single-battalion regiments into ‘super regiments’. The BBC is to get rid of 3,000 staff in three years to save £320 million. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution called for a ban on fishing in a third of British waters. The Department of Health told Britain’s 1,184 hospitals how to clean floors and lavatories in an attempt to reduce infection by Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which kills thousands a year. Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, demanded in a five-year plan that the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts should convict, fine or caution 1.25 million people a year by 2008, an increase of 170,000; Lord Falconer also admitted that attempts to abolish the post of Lord Chancellor had been dropped. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, and Mr Bertie Ahern, the Irish Taoiseach, tried very hard to get Mr Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, and the Revd Ian Paisley, the leader of the Democratic Unionist party, to kiss and make up.