Portrait of the Week – 16 November 2002

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, in a speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, said that ‘hardly a day goes by without some new piece of intelligence coming via our security services about a threat to UK interests’; ‘This is a new type of war, fought in a different way by different means,’ he said. ‘The dilemma is warning people without alarming them, taking preventive measures without destroying normal life.’ The level of alert was raised at seaports; Mr David Osler, the industrial editor of Lloyd’s List, said: ‘The threat seems to have taken the shape of a lorry loaded with explosives.’ Among government plans adumbrated in the Queen’s Speech was a Criminal Justice Bill, the brainchild of Mr David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, which would provide for limitation of trial by jury, the introduction of double jeopardy and the disclosure of defendants’ previous crimes. The Independent Review of the Fire Service, chaired by Sir George Bain, recommended that firemen should receive ‘substantial pay for substantial reform’; a suggestion of 11 per cent over two years was described by the Fire Brigades Union as ‘insulting’. Butlers and footmen in various royal establishments hurled accusations around, mostly concerning homosexual scandals. Mr Paul Burrell, the late Diana, Princess of Wales’s butler, who had been cleared by a court of stealing some of her possessions, denied a claim by Mr Michael Barrymore, the entertainer, that there was an attempted impropriety between them. Mr Burrell was interviewed by Sir Trevor McDonald on television, attracting about 4.4 million viewers; but the Antiques Roadshow shown at the same time drew about 8.4 million. A man in Australia called Mr Greg Pead produced letters from Mr Burrell, one of which, on Windsor Castle paper, began: ‘Hello, spunky!’ Mr George Smith, a former footman, said he had been sexually assaulted by a servant of Prince Charles, while unconscious through drink.