Portrait of the week | 29 January 2011

Home

Most popular

Matthew Parris

What if Trump is just bonkers?

The gross domestic product of the United Kingdom shrank by 0.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2010 compared with that quarter the previous year, according to initial figures from the Office for National Statistics. Manufacturing was up 1.4 per cent and construction down by 3.3 per cent. Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, said that living standards would shrink more than at any time since the 1920s. An agreement was delayed between the government and Britain’s biggest banks on the amount they should lend to small businesses; the scheme was known as Project Merlin. Andy Coulson resigned as head of communications at Downing Street because, he said, allegations about phone-hacking at the News of the World when he was its editor had become a distraction. Lord Taylor of Warwick, a former Conservative, was found guilty of false accounting in making parliamentary expenses claims of £11,277. The government made arrangements to replace control orders restricting the movements of security suspects (at present numbering eight) with similar measures going by a different name.

Alan Johnson resigned as shadow chancellor for personal reasons, and a policeman who had been on protection duties was suspended following allegations he had an inappropriate relationship with Mrs Johnson. Ed Balls was made shadow chancellor: his wife Yvette Cooper became shadow home secretary; Douglas Alexander became shadow foreign secretary; Tessa Jowell became shadow cabinet office minister, and shadow work and pensions went to Liam Byrne. A rat was caught on television cameras twice in a week scuttling past the door of 10 Downing Street as reporters stood speaking their dispatches.