Portrait of the week | 8 October 2011

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George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, told the Conservative party conference in Manchester that the Treasury would spend billions buying bonds from small and medium-sized businesses in an exercise called ‘credit easing’. He announced a freeze on council tax for a second year, saving householders an average of £72. He also remarked: ‘We’re not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business.’ David Cameron, the Prime Minister, told the nation to pay off its credit card bills. He also said: ‘As eurozone countries move to co-ordinate more, as I believe they should, those outside the eurozone will need certain safeguards’; Treasury officials were studying ways to protect British interests in trade and financial services. The UK economy grew by only 0.1 per cent between March and June, according to the Office for National Statistics, not the 0.2 per cent originally estimated. The FTSE 100 share index fell below 5000.