Portrait of the Week – 4 September 2004

The Royal Mail paid £50 million in compensation after meeting none of its 15 targets in the first quarter of the financial year, delivering only 88.3 per cent of first-class letters on time between April and June, against a target of 92.5 per cent; Oxford saw only 68 per cent delivered on time. By July Glasgow still had one in five first-class letters late. The Electoral Commission recommended that all-postal voting should be dropped in British elections after reports of abuse and disorganisation in the pilots in June undermined public confidence; Mr John Prescott’s all-postal referendum on regional government for the North East on 4 November would have to go ahead because it was too late to change it. Sir Bobby Robson, aged 71, was sacked after five years as manager of Newcastle United. The Fire Brigades Union called off strike plans after reaching agreement with employers about pay and bank holidays.