The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 28 February 2004

A speedy round-up of the week's news

issue 28 February 2004

Mr David Blunkett, the

Home Secretary, proposed internment without trial for those suspected of terrorist offences, and other measures such as wider telephone-tapping. The government said that migrants from countries joining the European Union on 1 May will not be able to claim some benefits until they have worked in Britain for a year. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said: ‘If they can’t support themselves, they will be put out of the country.’ But the criteria sounded unclear and open to legal challenge, as the European Commission lost no time in pointing out. Applications for asylum in the past year fell to 49,370, 41 per cent lower than 12 months earlier, according to Home Office figures, which showed the numbers including dependants falling to 61,050 from 103,080. The cost of the Holyrood building for the Scottish Parliament rose another £30 million to £430 million; original estimates in 1997 for the whole thing were between £10 million

and £40 million.

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