Portrait of the week

Home The gross domestic product of the United Kingdom was 0.8 per cent greater in the third quarter of the year than in the previous quarter, which had seen a growth of 1.2 per cent; the new figure was higher than expected. A Sovereign Support Grant will replace the Civil List from 2013, derived from part of the income of the Crown Estate, perhaps limited to £30 million a year. Switzerland agreed to withhold from British savers an amount representing the tax they would have paid at home. Investment in building wind turbines would bring 70,000 jobs by 2020, the government said. The owners of the Independent, which sells for a pound, launched a thin newspaper called i, selling for 20p. London firemen said they would go on strike on 5 November.

Home The coalition government announced cuts under the Comprehensive Spending Review of £23.1 billion, or 3.3 per cent of total government spending, over four years. The schools budget joined the NHS and international aid in being protected from cuts. This will be paid for by deeper cuts in welfare spending. Spending on infrastructure was revised upwards. The social housing budget will be heavily cut. George Osborne claimed he was cutting non-protected departments by 19 per cent, less than the 20 per cent Labour had planned. The Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast a loss of 490,000 jobs due to the reduction in the public sector by 2014–15, offset by 1.5 million more private-sector jobs over the period.

Universities in England should be able to charge unlimited fees, according to a report by Lord Browne of Madingley; students would start repaying loans when their earnings reached £21,000. Home Universities in England should be able to charge unlimited fees, according to a report by Lord Browne of Madingley; students would start repaying loans when their earnings reached £21,000. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said the coalition was considering a maximum fee of £7,000. Sir Philip Green, asked to investigate Whitehall efficiency by David Cameron, the Prime Minister, found that paper was being bought too dearly. The rate of inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index was unchanged at 3.1 per cent; on the Retail Price Index, it fell a smidgin from 4.7 to 4.

Home At the beginning of the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced on the radio that from 2013 child benefits would be withdrawn from any family where one parent earns more than about £44,000 a year. Home At the beginning of the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced on the radio that from 2013 child benefits would be withdrawn from any family where one parent earns more than about £44,000 a year. He also told the conference that the maximum amount of benefits any family could claim would be about £26,000, the amount ‘the average family gets for going out to work’.

The Spectator's portrait of the week Home Ed Miliband, aged 40, was elected leader of the Labour party by 50.65 per cent of the vote, to 49.35 per cent for his brother David, aged 45. Ed Miliband had gained 15.522 per cent from MPs, 15.198 from party members — both lower figures than his brother, but 19.934 from unions. His speech to the Labour party conference used the words ‘new generation’ 15 times but invoked without apparent irony ‘the optimism of Harold Wilson and the white heat of technology’. David Miliband repeatedly called his brother ‘special’, but, during the passage in the speech disowning the Iraq war, he said to Harriet Harman next to him: ‘You voted for it. Why are you clapping?

Home Pope Benedict XVI was expected to conclude a four-day state visit to Britain with the beatification of Cardinal Newman in Birmingham, after addressing Parliament at Westminster Hall and meeting the Queen in Edinburgh. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, called the visit ‘incredibly important and historic’. The Queen’s Speech, outlining the government programme of legislation, which was expected in the autumn of 2011, has been delayed until spring 2012. Derek Barnett, the president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, said that austerity is likely to lead to ‘disaffection, social and industrial tensions’. Unions at the BBC planned two 48-hour strikes, affecting coverage of the Conservative party conference.

Nearly six million people began to receive letters from HM Revenue & Customs telling them they had paid the wrong amount of tax. About £2 billion has been underpaid, at an average of £1,380 per person, and £1.8 billion overpaid, averaging £420 per person. Connaught, the social housing maintenance company, which employs 10,000 people, went into administration. As his special adviser resigned, Mr William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, issued a statement saying: ‘Any suggestion that his appointment was due to an improper relationship between us is utterly false, as is any suggestion that I have ever been involved in a relationship with any man.’ He said that they had occasionally shared hotel rooms with twin beds while campaigning.

Mr Tony Blair, the former prime minister, published his political memoir, A Journey, in which he said that Mr Gordon Brown drove him to drink, but not an ‘excessively excessive’ amount: ‘The curse of Gordon was to make these people co-conspirators, not free-range thinkers. Mr Tony Blair, the former prime minister, published his political memoir, A Journey, in which he said that Mr Gordon Brown drove him to drink, but not an ‘excessively excessive’ amount: ‘The curse of Gordon was to make these people co-conspirators, not free-range thinkers. He and Ed Balls and others ... it was more like a cult than a kirk.’ He did not sack Mr Brown lest he became ‘the figurehead of a far more damaging force well to the left’.

Mr Michael O’Higgins, the chairman of the Audit Commission, denied accusations made by Mr Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, of organisational extravagance exemplified by spending £5,943 to hire the Reform Club for a 25th anniversary event and £40,000 on pot plants for its offices. Mr Michael O’Higgins, the chairman of the Audit Commission, denied accusations made by Mr Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, of organisational extravagance exemplified by spending £5,943 to hire the Reform Club for a 25th anniversary event and £40,000 on pot plants for its offices. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that the emergency Budget in June was regressive, hitting poorer people hardest.

Mr David Cameron, the Prime Minister, got no further than Buckingham-shire on his summer holiday before Mr Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister, cast doubts on replacing Trident. ‘It’s going to be difficult for someone who is going to receive less housing benefit,’ he said, if the government spent ‘huge, huge amounts of money in a hurry on replacing Trident in full’. Dr Liam Fox, the Secretary of State for Defence, had suggested that the numbers of civil servants and senior officers in the armed forces would be notably reduced. Mr Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, was said to have had a ‘blazing, shouting, grade-A row’ with Mr George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, over the funding of his welfare reforms.

Mrs Anne Milton, the Health Minister, tried to abolish free milk for children under five in nurseries, as it costs £50 million a year and ‘there is no evidence that it improves the health of very young children’, but Downing Street said that Mr David Cameron, the Prime Minister ‘did not like the idea’, so it would not go ahead. Mrs Anne Milton, the Health Minister, tried to abolish free milk for children under five in nurseries, as it costs £50 million a year and ‘there is no evidence that it improves the health of very young children’, but Downing Street said that Mr David Cameron, the Prime Minister ‘did not like the idea’, so it would not go ahead.

Mr David Cameron, the Prime Minister, and Mr Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, rather oddly wrote a letter to the rest of the Cabinet. ‘Deficit reduction and continuing to ensure economic recovery is the most urgent issue facing Britain,’ they said. Mr George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that banks had an ‘obligation’ to increase their lending: ‘Every small and medium-sized company that I have visited in recent weeks has had some problem with their bank,’ he said. The profits of HSBC, which took no money from the government during the financial crisis, doubled for the first half of the year to £7 billion. Lloyds, 41 per cent of which is owned by the taxpayer, made £1.

Mr David Cameron, the Prime Minister, visited India, and on the way said he was ‘angry’ that negotiations for Turkey to join the European Union were so slow. Mr David Cameron, the Prime Minister, visited India, and on the way said he was ‘angry’ that negotiations for Turkey to join the European Union were so slow. While Mr Cameron was abroad earlier in America, Mr Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, had spoken in the Commons of the ‘illegal invasion of Iraq’. Four in ten people who said they had voted Lib-Dem would not have done had they known the party would enter a coalition with the Tories, a poll of 1,009 people for Newsnight said; but 86 per cent of Conservative voters said they would have done if they had known.

In a speech in Liverpool intended to relaunch his theme of the Big Society, as a ‘big advance for people power’, Mr David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that, as part of a scheme to ‘turn government completely on its head’, four community schemes were being set up in Liverpool (a museum project); the Eden Valley, Westmorland (a pub); Windsor (parks); and the London borough of Sutton (youth and green projects).

General practitioners, operating in consortia under an independent commissioning board, are to take charge of 70 per cent of the National Health Service budget by 2013, with the abolition of all England’s ten strategic health authorities and the 152 primary care trusts, according to a White Paper. General practitioners, operating in consortia under an independent commissioning board, are to take charge of 70 per cent of the National Health Service budget by 2013, with the abolition of all England’s ten strategic health authorities and the 152 primary care trusts, according to a White Paper. The annual rate of inflation measured by the Consumer Prices Index fell to 3.2 per cent for June, from 3.

The government’s committee on public expenditure, otherwise known as Pex or the Star Chamber, gave departments a month to come up with spending cuts of up to 33 per cent. The government’s committee on public expenditure, otherwise known as Pex or the Star Chamber, gave departments a month to come up with spending cuts of up to 33 per cent. Mr George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said he would spend the summer seeking ways to reduce welfare spending in order to cushion the cuts in other areas. Mr Ken Clarke, the Justice Secretary, proposed fewer short jail sentences, which were ‘costly and ineffective’.

In the Budget, Mr George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that the balance of cuts to tax rises would be 77 per cent to 23 per cent. Whitehall departments would have to cut spending by 25 per cent. Borrowing would fall from £149 billion this year to £20 billion in 2015-16. Debt would be 67 per cent of GDP by 2015-16, compared with the 75 per cent planned by Labour in its budget in March. Current expenditure of £637 billion this year would rise to £711 billion in 2015-16, to meet debt interest. Mr Osborne raised VAT from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent, from 4 January 2011. For basic-rate income tax payers, the personal allowance will rise by £1,000 in April, to £7,475.

The Office for Budget Responsibil-ity (OBR) forecast that gross domestic product would grow by 2.6 per cent in 2011, compared with the 3.25 per cent predicted by the previous government. But the deficit and inflation would nonetheless fall faster than predicted. ‘This is our best shot at an impossible task,’ said Sir Alan Budd, the head of the OBR. The government is to make an emergency Budget on 22 June. The OBR also said that the cost to the taxpayer of public sector pensions will rise from £4 billion a year now to £9 billion by 2014-15. Mr Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister said: ‘It’s not affordable.’ The annual rate of inflation measured by the Consumer Prices Index fell to 3.4 in May from 3.

Mr David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said in a speech that ‘in five years’ time the interest we are paying on our debt is predicted to be ‘around £70 billion’; this meant that of ‘every single pound you pay in tax, ten pence would be spent on interest’. Mr David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said in a speech that ‘in five years’ time the interest we are paying on our debt is predicted to be ‘around £70 billion’; this meant that of ‘every single pound you pay in tax, ten pence would be spent on interest’. Decisions on how to reduce the deficit ‘will affect every single person in our country’, he said.