• Home St Paul’s Cathedral decided not to take court action against anti-capitalist demonstrators who, since 15 October, had kept 200 tents pitched outside. The Corporation of London suspended its own legal action. The Rt Rev Graeme Knowles resigned as Dean of St Paul’s, a post he had held since 2007. His resignation followed that
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, insisted on being present, along with leaders of the 10 EU countries not part of the eurozone, at a summit on the crisis surrounding the currency bloc. At an earlier summit of leaders of all 27 EU countries, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France told Mr Cameron: ‘You say you
Home After the resignation of Liam Fox as Defence Secretary, a report by Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, found that there had been a ‘clear breach’ of the ministerial code in his working relationship with Adam Werritty, who had accompanied him on 18 foreign trips. Dr Fox, he said, had been warned about Mr
Home The Bank of England launched out on a further £75 billion worth of quantitative easing, but refused to buy government bonds maturing in 2017 because traders had driven up the price. Typical households will not return to the level of income they enjoyed in 2009 until 2015, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Home 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
Home Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour party, asked its conference: ‘Are you on the side of the wealth creators or the asset strippers?’ He criticised ‘predatory’ companies, and said that when it came to social housing we should not ‘treat the person who contributes to their community the same as the person who
Home The International Monetary Fund reduced its growth forecast for Britain this year from 1.5 per cent to 1.1 per cent and for next year from 2.3 to 1.6 per cent. A debate rumbled on in government about whether to spend more money on public infrastructure works as dark financial clouds loomed. ‘What I will
Home The Independent Commission on Banking, headed by Sir John Vickers, recommended that there should be insulation of high street banking from investment banking. George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, accepted the commission’s call for its recommendations to be introduced by 2019. The report received cross-party support, although it would cost banking £7 billion
Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in a speech in the City: ‘We have all had to revise down our short-term expectations over recent weeks.’ Industrial production for the United Kingdom fell by 0.2 per cent in July. House prices, according to the Halifax, fell by 1.2 per cent from July to
Home In London more than 2,000 had so far been arrested in connection with the August riots, of whom 1,135 had been charged. Nationally, 70 per cent of those who appeared in court were remanded in custody for trial. In more than half of Britain’s postcode areas, the Royal Mail failed to meet its aim
HOME David Cameron, the Prime Minister, stood outside 10 Downing Street and commented on events in Libya. ‘This has not been our revolution,’ he said, ‘but we can be proud that we have played our part.’ He had broken off his holiday in Cornwall for a meeting of the National Security Council. He had only
Home Of the 1,179 people who had appeared in court on charges arising from the riots by 15 August, two thirds were remanded in custody. The number of arrests by then had reached 2,772. Seven were arrested in connection with the murder of three Asian men in Birmingham, knocked down by a car. Tariq Jahan,
HOME Parliament was recalled as rioting spread across London and to other cities. It began in Tottenham on Saturday night, two days after a black man, Mark Duggan, was shot dead by police during an attempted arrest. Friends gathered at Tottenham police station asking the truth of the incident. The Independent Police Complaints Commission
This week’s Portrait of the week HOME William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said there was ‘not a remote possibility’ of using force against Syria, even with United Nations backing. The Commons defence committee said that cuts to the Armed Forces might prevent their doing whatever was needed after 2015. Mike Clasper, the chairman of HM
Home Gross Domestic Product grew by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2011, after a quarter in which growth was 0.5 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics, which took the trouble to mention extenuating circumstances such as the Japanese tsunami and the royal wedding. Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London,
This week’s Portrait of the week Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, cut short a trade mission to South Africa, returning to give a statement on the phone hacking scandal to the Commons, which delayed its summer recess. Rupert Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corporation, appeared before a select committee of the Commons investigating
Home The newspaper the News of the World was closed by Rupert Murdoch after 168 years as a response to revelations of phone hacking — breaking into telephone voicemail messages. Police were said to have 4,000 names that might have been targeted. There was public outcry after it was said that the phones of Milly
Home A private investigator working for the News of the World allegedly hacked into the voicemail of the murdered girl Milly Dowler while she was missing, deleting messages when the box was full to make room for new messages; this might have given the impression that the girl was still alive. David Cameron, the Prime
Home Teachers went on strike for a day. The National Association of Head Teachers strongly advised heads not to allow parent volunteers to keep schools open. Public-sector workers chose the same day to strike, also in a dispute over pensions. The UK Border Agency advised against flying that day. Ed Miliband, the leader of the
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, reversed the suggestion by Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, that prisoners who had pleaded guilty at an early stage should have their sentences halved. Earlier he had said that he saw no reason why Britain should be ‘dragged in’ to support a Greek bailout. Boris Johnson, the Mayor of
