Portrait of the week

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, tried to abolish the Lord Chancellor overnight by ukase, and to reassign his powers. But Lord Irvine of Lairg disagreed and was sacked. Lord Falconer of Thoroton was made Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, but it was discovered that the Lords could not sit without a Lord Chancellor, so Lord Falconer had to take the Great Seal, dress in gown and wig and sit on the Woolsack. Lord Strathclyde, the leader of the Conservative peers, said, 'If it is true that the Queen was not informed, then this is yet another example of discourtesy.' The hoo-ha overshadowed even the mysterious resignation of Mr Alan Milburn as Secretary of State for Health on the morning of the reshuffle; it was in favour of 'my life with my family', he said.

Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, told Parliament that only one of the five economic tests that would allow Britain to join the eurozone had been met; this was whether the City of London would remain Europe's leading financial centre. But Mr Brown said that at the next Budget he would 'consider the extent of progress and determine whether on the basis of the five economic tests which – if positive next year – would allow us at that time to put the issue before the British people in a referendum'. A Bill, stating the question to be asked, will be published this autumn. Mr Brown showed dissatisfaction with the rarity of fixed-rate mortgages and did not rule out using stamp duty and capital-gains tax to meddle with the market.

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, faced an investigation by the all-party Commons foreign affairs select committee into claims that he had misled the nation about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He said this week: 'Those people who are sitting there and saying, "It's all going to be proved to be a big fib got out by the security services, there will be no weapons of mass destruction," just wait and have a little patience.' He added, 'We are going to assemble that evidence and present it properly.' A dossier published last September had said, 'Intelligence indicates the Iraqi military is able to deploy chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes.

Mr Peter Hain, the Secretary of State for Wales, who is the government's representative to the convention that has published a draft constitution for the European Union, said, 'If people don't like what they get, they can vote against the government in the European elections next year' (on 10 June). But the government shied away from Mr Hain's remarks, lest they seemed an endorsement of a popular right to ratify the constitution. The opposition called for a referendum.

Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, sent Cabinet ministers a 2,500-page dossier on the Treasury's assessment of the five economic tests applicable in deciding if Britain should join the euro-zone. The ministers were then invited in one by one for 'trilateral' talks with the Chancellor and Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister. The Cabinet's decision is to be announced and the mountain of documentation published on 9 June; if the recommendation is to join, of which there is no predictable chance, there will be a referendum. Mr Blair wants Britain to enter the zone, and the press was full of stories about his tussle with Mr Brown. Some people called for another referendum on the proposed new constitution for the European Union, masterminded by M.

Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, resigned on the pretext that the Prime Minister had broken his assurances that the UN would be more involved in the reconstruction of Iraq. Mr Blair, she told the Commons, should start thinking about resigning himself and prepare for 'an elegant succession'. Within half an hour, the Prime Minister had appointed Lady Amos to Ms Short's job, suggesting that he had been preparing to sack Ms Short anyway. An IRA hitman called Alfredo Scappaticci, said to be head of the organisation's 'nutting squad', was alleged to have been helping British intelligence for years under a codename 'Stakeknife' or 'Steak Knife'. Mr Scappaticci later denied it.

The Labour party suspended Mr George Galloway, an MP, from 'holding office or representing the party' while it investigated complaints that remarks he made during the war against Iraq might have constituted 'behaviour that is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the party'. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, and Mr Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, attempted to reduce a rebellion by Labour MPs against their plans to introduce 'foundation' status for some hospitals. Car drivers will be charged £3 (or £1 at night) to use the 27-mile M6Toll motorway in the West Midlands, which opens in 2004.

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said before local elections that 'the issue of reform of public services in health, in education, in criminal justice – this is the big challenge that this government and the Labour party faces'. His words were seen partly as a warning to the Left of his party and partly as a demonstration that his mind was on domestic affairs. He then flew off to Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin for talks about the future of Iraq; Mr Putin rejected Mr Blair's call for the lifting of sanctions against Iraq and emphasised that the existence of weapons of mass destruction must be resolved.

The Daily Telegraph said that documents found in the ruined Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad by a Daily Telegraph reporter were said to discuss payments to Mr George Galloway, the MP for Glasgow Kelvin. Mr Galloway said: 'I have never solicited, nor would I have accepted had I been offered, any financial assistance of any kind from the Iraqi regime.' Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, told the Sun how he had explained to his children that a Commons vote on the Iraq war might bring him down: 'I did sit down with them at one point and I explained that this was going to be extremely difficult and it was possible the thing could go against me,' he said.

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, in a statement to Parliament about the war in Iraq, said, 'There is upon us a heavy responsibility to make the peace worth the war. We shall do so ...with a fixed and steady resolve that the cause was just, the victory right, and the future for us to make in a way that will stand the judgment of history.' Mr Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said during a stop in Kuwait: 'There is much evidence of co-operation between the Syrian government and the Saddam regime in recent months.' But in a press conference in Bahrain he said, 'We have made it clear that there are no plans for Syria to be next on the list.' And Iran was a 'different case', he told the BBC in Bahrain. 'We've been developing better diplomatic relations with Iran.

An ICM poll in the Guardian found that 52 per cent approved of the war and 34 per cent opposed it; among Conservatives approval was 61 per cent, among Labour supporters 59 per cent and among Liberal Democrats 31 per cent. Mr Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, told Parliament that, with 45,000 British servicemen already sent to the war, 'what I am ruling out, at this stage at any rate, is the necessity for any substantial increase'. Mr Robin Cook, who resigned as Leader of the Commons before the war started, wrote in the Sunday Mirror: 'I have already had my fill of this bloody and unnecessary war. I want our troops home and I want them home before more of them are killed.' But on the day the article came out he said: 'I am not in favour of abandoning the battlefield.

That we will encounter more difficulties and anxious moments in the days ahead is certain,' Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said in the Commons after four days of war against Iraq, 'but no less certain, indeed more so, is coalition victory.' On the seventh day of the war he flew, with Mr Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, to the United States for talks with President George Bush and Mr Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations. RAF Tornados attacked radar systems around Baghdad, and B52 bombers based at Fairford, Gloucestershire, flew nightly sorties to release computer-guided missiles against targets in Iraq.

British troops joined the American assault on Iraq, after a Commons debate in which an anti-war motion was defeated by 396 votes to 217 (including 139 Labour rebels), and a government motion seeking 'all necessary means' to disarm Iraq was passed by 412 votes to 149, a majority of 263. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said in the debate that if Parliament voted to pull out British troops, 'I would not be party to such a course.

Britain joined the United States and Spain in tabling an amendment to the draft resolution before the Security Council of the United Nations, reading: 'Iraq will have failed to take the final opportunity afforded by resolution 1441 unless on or before 17 March 2003 the Council concludes that Iraq has demonstrated full, unconditional, immediate and active co-operation with its disarmament obligations.' Miss Clare Short became the first Cabinet minister to threaten resignation if Britain went to war without securing a UN vote; to add injury to Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, she accused him of recklessness over Iraq and being 'reckless with our government, reckless with his own future, position and place in history'.

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said in a speech in Swansea: 'In 1938 Chamberlain was a hero when he brought back the Munich agreement. And he did it for the best of motives. He had seen members of his precious family, people he loved, die in the carnage of World War I. He was a good man. But he was a good man who made the wrong decision.' This followed a motion in the Commons on action against Iraq passed by a majority of 194, but opposed by 199 MPs - 121 of them Labour - who supported an amendment stating that the case for war was 'as yet unproven'. London is to hold an exercise simulating a 'catastrophic incident', according to Mr David Blunkett, the Home Secretary.

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said, in an emergency statement to the House of Commons on Iraq, that 100 per cent co-operation by Saddam Hussein was necessary, and 'anything less will not do'. A day's debate followed in the Lords and Commons, where many Labour members were prepared to vote against the government. Mr Blair had visited the Pope in the company of his wife, and became the first serving prime minister to attend a papal Mass. At the General Synod of the Church of England, on the eve of the enthronment of Dr Rowan Williams as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, prayers were offered for the British Prime Minister, the President of the United States, Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government.

Perhaps a million people rallied in Hyde Park after a march through London in opposition to war against Iraq. Meanwhile Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said in a speech to a Labour spring conference in Glasgow, 'I do not seek unpopularity as a badge of honour. But sometimes it is the price of leadership, and the cost of conviction.' He later announced he would go to meet the Pope in Rome. Hasil Mohammed Rahaham-Alan was charged under the Terrorism Act after a hand grenade was allegedly found in his luggage at Gatwick airport after a flight from Caracas. Since 11 September, 304 people have been arrested in Britain on suspicion of terrorism, but only three have been convicted.

Thousands prepared to march to Hyde Park in London to demonstrate opposition to war against Iraq; they included Mr Charles Kennedy, the leader of the Liberal Democrat party. About 400 soldiers from the Grenadier Guards and Household Cavalry with armoured cars began to patrol Heathrow airport, authorised by Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister. The England cricket team decided not to play in the World Cup in Zimbabwe out of fear of a death threat, they said. On television Mr Blair gave Mr Jeremy Paxman an undertaking about the number of applications for asylum being made: 'I would like to see us reduce it by 30-40 per cent in the next few months, and I think by September of this year we should have it halved.

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, returning from a meeting at the White House with President George Bush of the United States, said, 'I believe there will be a second resolution,' referring to a further United Nations Security Council vote for action against Iraq, the advisability of which he had tried to convince Mr Bush. Mr Blair then flew off to Paris to try, with little apparent success, to persuade President Jacques Chirac to back a new UN resolution; he took with him four Cabinet ministers - the secretaries of state for the home and foreign departments, for defence and for education - as well as Sir Michael Boyce, the Chief of the Defence Staff.

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, decided to fly to Camp David for talks with President George Bush of the United States about the war against Iraq. Mr Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said: 'The Iraqi regime is responding to resolution 1441 not with active co-operation but with a consistent pattern of concealment and deceit.' The Financial Times-Stock Exchange index of the top 100 companies fell on 11 consecutive days of trading to its lowest for seven years, losing 49.8 per cent of its value at the peak reached on 30 December 1999. The banking group Cazenove postponed plans to float on the London Stock Exchange.