Portrait of the week
Portrait of the week: power failures, toy shortages and Boris’s Marbella mountain villa
Home In an extraordinary wrangle between government departments, the Treasury accused Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, of ‘making things up’…
Portrait of the week: Facebook’s blackout, California’s oil spill and Rishi’s kitchen sink
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said he did not think Britain was in a crisis; he wanted it to…
Portrait of the week: Petrol panic, Labour’s meltdown and China’s crypto crackdown
Home The crisis of the week was a shortage of fuel at garages. ‘There is no need for people to…
Portrait of the week: Gas prices soar, cabinet reshuffled and a green light for travel
Home To prevent a shortage of meat, which relies on carbon dioxide in its packaging, the government gave millions of…
Portrait of the week: Boosters, Emma Raducanu and the Taliban’s new rules
Home The government decided to offer booster vaccinations to those over 50. Children aged 12 to 15 would be offered…
Portrait of the week: Tax rises, Tube gets busier and Taliban names its government
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, announced a new tax in the Commons branded a ‘health and social care levy’.…
Portrait of the week: Britain leaves Afghanistan, hurricane hits New Orleans and Gove goes clubbing
Home Britain brought its last troops home from Afghanistan, having flown out more than 15,000 people since 14 August; but…
Portrait of the week: the chaotic evacuation from Kabul
Home At the virtual G7 emergency summit that he was chairing, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, urged President Joe Biden…
Portrait of the week: the Taliban take Afghanistan
Home Parliament was recalled after the rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, returned from…
Portrait of the week: Cameron’s cash, A-grades abound and Tower Bridge won’t budge
Home With less frightening domestic data on the coronavirus pandemic to ponder, subjects such as the rivalry between Boris Johnson,…
Portrait of the week: Vouchers for vaccines, cases rise in China and a Christmas baby for Boris and Carrie
Home After the number of people ‘pinged’ (alerted by an NHS Covid-19 app) neared 700,000, the app was adjusted so…
Portrait of the week: Channel crossings, chain-gangs for criminals and Tesco Bank shuts up shop
Home The daily number of coronavirus cases detected by tests fell from 54,674 on 17 July to 23,511 by 27…
Portrait of the week: Covid in cabinet, pingdemic pandemonium and Ben & Jerry’s boycott
Home On the eve of the day that most coronavirus restrictions were to be lifted, the Prime Minister and Chancellor…
Portrait of the week: Mixed messages on masks, protests in Cuba and good news for pandas
Home England expects everyone to wear masks in crowded places, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said in a televised address,…
Portrait of the week: Masks to be dropped, John Lewis builds houses and Russia lays claim to champagne
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said that if a review of coronavirus restrictions on 12 July allowed, then on…
Portrait of the week: Hancock out, Javid in and MoD papers found at a bus stop
Home A lively game of hunt the issue followed the resignation of Matt Hancock as Secretary of State for Health…
Portrait of the week: A bombshell by-election, Scotland bans Mancunians and China staffs its space station
Home The government contemplated its promised Planning Bill, blamed for contributing to the astonishing victory for the Liberal Democrat Sarah…
Portrait of the week: Freedom off, GB News on and the Queen’s tea with Biden
Home The lifting of coronavirus restrictions was delayed from 21 June until 19 July, probably. The motive was to avoid…
Portrait of the week: Pub staff shortages, a baby called Lilibet and a slap in the face for Macron
Home The government pondered delaying the end of coronavirus restrictions on 21 June. But Chris Hopson, the chief executive of…
Portrait of the week: Boris Johnson’s wedding, bitcoin blackouts and a £140m tomato ketchup factory
Home Freelance scientists urged the government not to end coronavirus regulations on 21 June, for fear of a third wave.…
Portrait of the week: Bashir’s reckoning, Dominic Cummings’s evidence and ‘secret’ local lockdowns
Home The BBC was engulfed in doubts after a report by Lord Dyson blamed Martin Bashir for deceiving the late…
Portrait of the week: Indian variant goes up, Santander goes down and pubs reopen
Home The government made noises about having to delay the lifting of coronavirus restrictions on 21 June in some parts…
Portrait of the week: Scotland votes, Queen speaks and Israel-Palestine crisis escalates
Home A new complexion of British politics was revealed by the capture of Hartlepool by Jill Mortimer for the Conservatives…
Portrait of the week: Covid retreats, raves resume and a £165,000 squid
Home ‘I think we have got a good chance of being able to dispense with the one-metre-plus from 21 June,’…
Portrait of the week: A political squall, sub-postmasters exonerated and India’s Covid crisis
Home By the beginning of the week, 12,071,810 people had received both doses of coronavirus vaccine, and the proportion of…
