Portrait of the Week – 15 May 2004

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, apologised conditionally for crimes that British soldiers might have committed in Iraq: ‘We apologise deeply to anyone who has been mistreated by any of our soldiers.’ He and Foreign Office ministers denied having seen until very recently a Red Cross report of alleged Coalition abuses that was delivered to high Coalition officials in February. More evidence was found for the inauthenticity of photographs published by the Daily Mirror purporting to show British troops mistreating Iraqi prisoners. Mr John Scarlett was named as the next chief of MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service; he had been chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee when he took control of the dossier on Iraq of September 2002, which incorporated suggestions from Downing Street advisers. A plastics factory in Glasgow collapsed killing seven after an explosion; people were trapped in rubble. Mr Luc Vandevelde announced his departure from Marks & Spencer, where he was chairman.