Portrait of the week | 29 August 2013

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The nation settled down to watch the Paralympic Games on television. Some 2.5 million tickets had been sold for events. The government reconsidered building a third runway at Heathrow after all. Grant Shapps, the housing minister, said that ‘all options should be considered’, even though the Transport Secretary, Justine Greening, whose constituency is under the flight path, has campaigned against it. The former minister Tim Yeo asked whether David Cameron, the Prime Minister, was a man or a mouse. Ms Greening said that there was no reason to delay signing a contract with FirstGroup to run the West Coast main line; Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Trains lost the franchise, called for a reconsideration by Parliament and then went to court. The British economy contracted by 0.5 per cent in the second quarter, not the 0.7 per cent announced in July, according to revised figures. Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister, suddenly said that rich people should pay a special tax during the economic downturn.