Portrait of the week

Portrait of the week: Case takes over civil service, Zoom profits rocket and Ocado adopts M&S

5 September 2020 9:00 am

Home Simon Case, aged 41, the private secretary to the Duke of Cambridge 2018-20, was appointed Cabinet Secretary and Head…

Portrait of the week: BBC drops songs, museum drops Sloane, and KFC and John Lewis drop slogans

29 August 2020 9:00 am

Home Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, made pupils wear face-coverings in school corridors. It didn’t take long for…

Portrait of the week: A-level chaos, quarantine confusion and revolution

22 August 2020 9:00 am

Home The government seemed to be taken strangely unaware by the frenzy of recrimination that came its way when results…

Portrait of the week: Employment falls, exam failures and a roundabout rigmarole

15 August 2020 9:00 am

Home In fine weather with calm seas, 565 migrants in four days crossed the Channel in small craft. French officials…

Portrait of the week: Local lockdowns, busy beaches and an explosion in Beirut

8 August 2020 9:00 am

Home Some 2.7 million people in Greater Manchester and parts of Lancashire and West Yorkshire, where many Muslims live, were…

Portrait of the week: Second wave fears, cash for cyclists and a cat catches Covid

1 August 2020 9:00 am

Home At a few hours’ notice, the government removed Spain from the list of countries from which it was possible…

Portrait of the week: Vaccine hopes, the Russia report and a knighthood for Captain Tom

25 July 2020 9:00 am

Home A coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, tested on 1,077 people, was found to induce antibodies and…

Portrait of the week: Face masks in, Huawei out and Amazon’s TikTok trouble

18 July 2020 9:00 am

Home New regulations would compel people to wear a face covering in shops in England from 24 July on pain…

Portrait of the week: Sunak’s statement, shop closures and a hoo-ha over Boohoo

11 July 2020 9:00 am

Home Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced measures intended to stimulate the economy. Under a £111 million scheme,…

Portrait of the week: Boris does press-ups, pubs reopen and Leicester locks down

4 July 2020 9:00 am

Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said he was ‘as fit as a butcher’s dog’ and did press-ups to prove…

Portrait of the week: Lockdown eases, debt rises and three killed in Reading

27 June 2020 9:00 am

Home Pubs in England would be allowed to reopen for table service from 4 July, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister,…

Portrait of the week: Statues, steroids and support bubbles

20 June 2020 9:00 am

Home Britain went into a frenzy of iconoclasm. The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square was hidden by the…

Portrait of the week: Schools stay shut, Colston tumbles and bell tolls for Japan’s bike bells

13 June 2020 9:00 am

Home The government lurched uncertainly in dealing with coronavirus. Not all years in primary schools would after all return before…

Portrait of the week: MPs return, dentists reopen and racing resumes

6 June 2020 9:00 am

Home Primary schools were allowed to reopen but many did not want to. MPs voted to return to their physical…

Portrait of the week: Cummings under fire, protests in Hong Kong and a big cat in East Finchley

30 May 2020 9:00 am

Home Open-air markets and car showrooms will be allowed to open from 1 June and other ‘non-essential’ shops from 15…

Portrait of the week: Unemployment up, bathers banned and Corbyn’s brother arrested

23 May 2020 9:00 am

Home The United Kingdom seemed reluctant to come out of its lockdown. ‘We are likely to face a severe recession,…

Portrait of the week: Europe’s lockdowns ease, England stays alert and Broadway stays shut

16 May 2020 9:00 am

Home The government changed its slogan from ‘Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’ to ‘Stay alert, control the virus,…

Portrait of the week: Neil Ferguson quits, Rory Stewart drops out and Boris names his baby

9 May 2020 9:00 am

Home The government put its mind to the puzzle of how to get people back to work. Draft advice was…

Portrait of the week: Boris’s son is born, Commons sits apart and Belgians told to eat more potatoes

2 May 2020 9:00 am

Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, returned to work at Downing Street after recovering from his Covid-19 sickness. Speaking outside…

Portrait of the week: The Queen turns 94, Captain Tom raises £27m and Harry and Meghan block newspapers

25 April 2020 9:00 am

Home The number of people with the coronavirus disease Covid-19 who had died in hospitals by the beginning of the…

Portrait of the week: Boris recovers, flour sales soar and France and India extend lockdowns

18 April 2020 9:00 am

Home The number of people with the coronavirus disease Covid-19 who had died in hospitals by the beginning of the…

Portrait of the week: Queen speaks, mobile masts burn and Boris Johnson goes into hospital

11 April 2020 9:00 am

Home The number of people who had died from the coronavirus disease Covid-19 in the UK by Sunday 5 April…

Portrait of the week: Coronavirus hits cabinet, EasyJet grounded and postman soldiers on

4 April 2020 9:00 am

Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, contracted the coronavirus disease Covid-19, as did Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary. The Prince…

Portrait of the week: Salmond cleared, Olympics postponed and Britain told to stay home

28 March 2020 9:00 am

Coronavirus Sunday dawned with 233 people in the United Kingdom dead thus far from the coronavirus Covid-19 (a week earlier…

Portrait of the week: Coronavirus hits pubs, offices, sport, the FTSE and Mount Everest

21 March 2020 9:00 am

Coronavirus The government asked all people over 70 to cease from social contact for at least 12 weeks in order…