Portrait of the Week – 24 May 2003

Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, sent Cabinet ministers a 2,500-page dossier on the Treasury’s assessment of the five economic tests applicable in deciding if Britain should join the euro-zone. The ministers were then invited in one by one for ‘trilateral’ talks with the Chancellor and Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister. The Cabinet’s decision is to be announced and the mountain of documentation published on 9 June; if the recommendation is to join, of which there is no predictable chance, there will be a referendum. Mr Blair wants Britain to enter the zone, and the press was full of stories about his tussle with Mr Brown. Some people called for another referendum on the proposed new constitution for the European Union, masterminded by M. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who visited Downing Street for talks with Mr Blair. The government majority was cut to 72 when 33 Labour members voted against their party to oppose provisions in the Criminal Justice Bill to limit trial by jury.