The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 18 October 2012

issue 20 October 2012

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Theresa May, the Home Secretary, blocked the extradition of Gary McKinnon to the United States, where he is suspected of having hacked into government computers. She told the Commons there was no doubt he had Asperger’s syndrome and suffered from depressive illness, and that there was a risk of suicide. Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, blocked the release of private letters that the Prince of Wales had sent to seven government departments. The Territorial Army would be renamed the Army Reserve and become an ‘integral part’ of the Army, Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary said. Five Royal Marines were charged with murder over an incident in Afghanistan in 2011 that concerned an insurgent but no civilians. The annual inflation rate, measured by the Consumer Prices Index, fell to 2.2 per cent in September, from 2.5 per cent in August. British Gas put up prices by 6 per cent.

Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, had his way in giving 16-year-olds the right to vote in a referendum on Scottish independence, but only one question will be put on the ballot, to be held in 2014.

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