Portrait of the week

Mr David Laws resigned as Chief Secretary to the Treasury after it was revealed that he had used parliamentary allowances to pay £40,000 rent over five years for a room in the house of a man with whom he had long had a sexual relationship. Mr David Laws resigned as Chief Secretary to the Treasury after it was revealed that he had used parliamentary allowances to pay £40,000 rent over five years for a room in the house of a man with whom he had long had a sexual relationship. ‘My motivation throughout has not been to maximise profit,’ Mr Laws said, ‘but to simply protect our privacy and my wish not to reveal my sexuality.’ Mr Danny Alexander, also a Liberal Democrat, replaced Mr Laws in the Cabinet.

In her 58th speech at the state opening of Parliament, the Queen said: ‘My government’s legislative programme will be based upon the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility.’ In her 58th speech at the state opening of Parliament, the Queen said: ‘My government’s legislative programme will be based upon the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility.

George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said he would hold an emergency Budget on 22 June. He announced the setting up of an Office for Budget Responsibility under Sir Alan Budd, one of the original members of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee in 1997. The office would publish its first economic and fiscal forecasts before the Budget. In the meantime the government looked for £6 billion of savings to make this year. Mr David Cameron, the Prime Minister, sought, as an adviser on poverty, Mr Frank Field, the Labour MP asked in 1997 to ‘think the unthinkable’ about welfare reform and sacked as a minister when he did so. MPs reappointed Mr John Bercow as Speaker.

Five days after the general election, Mr David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative party, accepted the Queen’s request to form an administration and kissed hands upon his appointment as Prime Minister, the 12th of her reign, and at 43, the youngest since Lord Liverpool. Five days after the general election, Mr David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative party, accepted the Queen’s request to form an administration and kissed hands upon his appointment as Prime Minister, the 12th of her reign, and at 43, the youngest since Lord Liverpool. In Downing Street he announced a ‘full coalition’ with the Liberal Democrats.

The country voted in a general election and local elections. In the run-up to the polls, Mr Gordon Brown had comforted Tiari Sanchez, aged 14, who broke down in tears as she described to a rally of Citizens UK how her family had to eat lentils because their mother earned so little as a cleaner at the Treasury. Mr Brown said hers was an example of the importance of fighting for ‘fairness and dignity for all’. Mr David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative party, wooed Ulster Unionists, then took to campaigning in the middle of the night, visiting firemen and fishermen. Mr Manish Sood, a Labour candidate, told his local paper: ‘I believe Gordon Brown has been the worst prime minister we have had in this country.

On the eve of the third television debate by the leaders of Britain’s three main parties, on the subject of the economy, the Institute for Fiscal Studies published a report on the size of the spending cuts and tax rises needed and criticised the parties for failing to set out how they would achieve them. On the eve of the third television debate by the leaders of Britain’s three main parties, on the subject of the economy, the Institute for Fiscal Studies published a report on the size of the spending cuts and tax rises needed and criticised the parties for failing to set out how they would achieve them. All the talk was of a hung parliament. The party leaders’ second debate drew a live audience of 4.

Some 150,000 British travellers were stranded when the National Air Traffic Services stopped all flights from 15 April because of a cloud of fine volcanic ash drifting from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. Some 150,000 British travellers were stranded when the National Air Traffic Services stopped all flights from 15 April because of a cloud of fine volcanic ash drifting from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. It was feared that the glassy particles would melt in jet engines, causing them to fail. The name of the volcano was very seldom heard on British media because it was hard to pronounce. No aeroplanes flew over Europe from the Pyrenees to the Arctic. The quietness was widely noted.

Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, sent the Foreign Secretary to a nuclear security summit in Washington, so that he could launch the Labour party manifesto in an empty hospital in Birmingham. It promised to halve the annual deficit by 2014, through growth, taxes and cuts, but not to raise rates of income tax and not to extend VAT to food, children’s clothes, books, newspapers and public transport fares. Underperforming schools might be taken over by more successful ones; failing police forces might be taken over by more successful ones. There would be a referendum before 2011 on the alternative vote method of electing MPs. Mr David Cameron launched the Conservative manifesto at Battersea power station, promising: ‘People power, not state power.

The Queen agreed to a request from Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, to dissolve Parliament so that a general election might be held on 6 May. Mr Brown stood in Downing Street, surrounded by the Cabinet, including a woman with striking red hair, who turned out to be Lady Royall of Blaisdon, the leader of the House of Lords. He then went with a posse of outriders to catch a train to Ashford, Kent. On Monday, after the dissolution of Parliament, he will fly from the country, in order to take part in talks in New York about Iran’s nuclear programme. Mr David Cameron, the leader of the opposition, stood by the Thames for the cameras, surrounded by young party supporters, then went to Leeds.

Mr Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, and Mr Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, held a debate on television. Many viewers had hoped one of them would fall off the tightrope, but none did. Mr Cable called Labour efficiency-saving plans a ‘fiction’ and accused the Tories of swallowing the fiction to fund their proposed cut, announced earlier that day, for low and middle earners, of the 1 per cent rise in National Insurance due in 2011. Earlier, on being asked whether he accepted Treasury figures that suggested deeper, tougher cuts than those made by the Thatcher administration, Mr Darling said: ‘They will be deeper and tougher.

A European Commission report warned that Britain would not meet the 2014-2015 deadline for reducing the budget deficit to below 3 per cent of domestic output. Mr Liam Byrne, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: ‘We think the EU has got the judgment wrong.’ British Airways cabin crew belonging to the union Unite announced strikes for three days from 20 March and four days from 27 March. Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, called the strike ‘totally unjustifiable’. Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, then spoke out against it on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour: ‘It is the wrong time, it is unjustified, it is deplorable, we shouldn’t have a strike.

Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, appeared before the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war and denied that as Chancellor of the Exchequer he had harmfully squeezed defence budgets. ‘At any point, commanders were able to ask for equipment that they needed and I know of no occasion when they were turned down,’ he said. ‘That is simply disingenuous,’ said Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, Chief of the Defence Staff from 1997 to 2001. ‘He’s being disingenuous,’ said Lord Boyce, the Chief of the Defence Staff from 2001 to 2003. Mr Brown then flew off to see British troops in Afghanistan. The death of a British soldier in Helmand brought the number killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 272.

Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, had sworn at senior aides and ‘roughly shoved aside’ an adviser and hit a car seat, according to an extract in the Observer from a forthcoming book by Mr Andrew Rawnsley. Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, had sworn at senior aides and ‘roughly shoved aside’ an adviser and hit a car seat, according to an extract in the Observer from a forthcoming book by Mr Andrew Rawnsley. ‘I have never, never hit anybody in my life,’ Mr Brown said. ‘I throw the newspapers on the floor or something like that.

UK Financial Investments, which oversees the British government’s stake in RBS, Lloyds and Northern Rock, said it might be 2015 before taxpayers got back the £40 billion used to prop up failing banks. UK Financial Investments, which oversees the British government’s stake in RBS, Lloyds and Northern Rock, said it might be 2015 before taxpayers got back the £40 billion used to prop up failing banks. Barclays’ profits increased to £11.6 billion in 2009, a rise of 92 per cent over the year before. Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said that the world’s leading economies were close to agreeing an international levy on banks.

Three Labour MPs, Mr Elliot Morley, Mr David Chaytor and Mr Jim Devine, and a Conservative peer, Lord Hanningfield, were charged with false accounting under section 17 of the Theft Act 1968 with regard to claims for parliamentary expenses. Lawyers for the MPs let it be known that they might claim immunity from prosecution under parliamentary privilege guaranteed by the Bill of Rights 1689. Mr David Cameron said that he had asked Sir George Young, the shadow leader of the House, to draft a Parliamentary Privilege Bill to clarify matters. Lord Hanningfield was quickly suspended from the parliamentary Conservative party and stood down as leader of Essex County Council. Three days later the MPs were suspended from the parliamentary Labour party.

Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said MPs would vote next week on whether a referendum should be held to allow an alternative-vote system in general elections after the next one. The government also came up with new ideas for persecuting smokers, such as driving them from shelter in doorways. Members of the Scottish Parliament passed their own law to make shopkeepers hide cigarettes. During a meeting in Rome with the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, the Pope implicitly criticised the Equality Bill promoted by Miss Harriet Harman. ‘Your country is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity,’ he said.

Britain technically emerged from recession, with economic growth of 0.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2009, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, although these might be revised in a month’s time. Britain technically emerged from recession, with economic growth of 0.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2009, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, although these might be revised in a month’s time. The previous six quarters of contraction had been the longest such period since 1955. Gross Domestic Product fell by 4.8 per cent last year. The 100 partners of Goldman Sachs based in Britain are having pay and bonuses for 2009 capped at £1 million each; this will not affect executives of the bank who are not partners.

British people donated £23 million through the charities’ Disasters Emergency Committee to help the people of Haiti within six days of the earthquake there; the British government also gave £20 million. British people donated £23 million through the charities’ Disasters Emergency Committee to help the people of Haiti within six days of the earthquake there; the British government also gave £20 million. Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said in a speech: ‘The coming decade will provide the UK with more middle-class jobs than ever before.’ Cadbury agreed to an £11.5 billion takeover by Kraft; there were fears of job losses. Unemployment unexpectedly fell a smidgen in December to 2.45 million.