The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 25 July 2013

issue 27 July 2013

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The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a boy, weighing 8lb 6oz, an heir to the crown, third in line to the throne. Great public excitement was expressed by taking photographs of an official notice of the birth posted on a gilt easel inside the railings of Buckingham Palace. Bells rang and gun salutes were fired. Mel Smith, the comedian, died, aged 60. Thunderstorms cut off power and disrupted train services after a fortnight of hot weather reached temperatures of 33.5˚C in London, the highest since 2006. Many-fruited beardless moss, found in only four locations in the world, may have disappeared from two places in Cornwall.

George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that tax on profits from the production of shale gas would be cut from 62 per cent to 30 per cent, which he called the ‘most generous’ terms in the world.

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