Portrait of the Week – 22 February 2003

Perhaps a million people rallied in Hyde Park after a march through London in opposition to war against Iraq. Meanwhile Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said in a speech to a Labour spring conference in Glasgow, ‘I do not seek unpopularity as a badge of honour. But sometimes it is the price of leadership, and the cost of conviction.’ He later announced he would go to meet the Pope in Rome. Hasil Mohammed Rahaham-Alan was charged under the Terrorism Act after a hand grenade was allegedly found in his luggage at Gatwick airport after a flight from Caracas. Since 11 September, 304 people have been arrested in Britain on suspicion of terrorism, but only three have been convicted. Asked on television if he thought a terrorist attack on Britain was inevitable, Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said, ‘I am afraid I think it probably is.’ Traffic fell by 25 per cent on the first day of charging motor-cars to use eight square miles of central London; of 190,000 vehicles using the area, about 100,000 paid £5, 10,000 did not and will be fined, and the rest were exempted.