Portrait of the Week – 28 December 2002

January. Twelve countries of the European Union adopted the euro as their common currency. Lord Birt was asked by Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, to draw up a report on transport. Rail fares went up and drivers went on strike. Connex South-East found it could get more passengers on trains by abolishing lavatories. Peggy Lee, the singer, died, aged 81. America flew al-Qa’eda and Taleban prisoners to a camp at Guantanamo Bay on the island of Cuba. India and Pakistan stood on the brink of war. A Home Office report found that in London (where 8 per cent are black) 70 per cent of mobile-telephone thefts were carried out by blacks.

February. Lord Wakeham, a non-executive director of Enron, the bankrupt American energy company, stepped ‘aside’ from his post as chairman of the Press Complaints Commission while retaining his £156,000 salary. Mr Blair commended to Mr Adrian Nastase, the Prime Minister of Romania, a bid to buy its steel company by Mr Lakshmi Mittal, who had given £125,000 to the Labour party.