Portrait of the week | 21 November 2013

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The government announced proposals for the National Health Service, including a law to criminalise wilful neglect by doctors and nurses, and a scheme to post online the numbers of nurses on wards. By the end of October, 219 households had seen work completed to insulate their houses under the government’s Green Deal, launched last January. Nick Boles, the planning minister, suggested that David Cameron, the Prime Minister, might like to revive the National Liberal Party, an organisation affiliated to the Conservative party from 1947 to 1968. The Foreign Office summoned the Spanish ambassador after a Spanish ship entered waters off Gibraltar and undertook surveying activity for 20 hours. A Norfolk woman was convicted of failing to stop after an accident after she tweeted: ‘Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier.’ Tie Rack is to close its 44 shops.

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At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Colombo, Sri Lanka, David Cameron called for an independent inquiry into alleged war crimes by the Sri Lankan government at the end of its war against separatist Tamil Tiger terrorists; otherwise he would take action through Britain’s position on the UN Human Rights Council. He flew to Jaffna and met Tamils at a camp, whose leader said: ‘We believe in David Cameron as a god.’ The Prince of Wales celebrated his 65th birthday and danced the hokey cokey with disabled Sri Lankan children. Back in Britain, David Cameron telephoned the President of Iran. Downing Street responded to an invitation by Professor John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health, for a national debate on reducing the age of consent from 16 to 15, by saying: ‘There are no plans to change it.’ Mr Cameron responded to an invitation by the Princess Royal to consider the horsemeat trade by saying: ‘I think we should stick to our non-horse-eating habits.