The Spectator

The Fire Brigades Union announced a 48-hour national strike from 29 October, the first of a series of stoppages in pursuit of a 40 per cent pay rise. About 19,000 servicemen were put on alert to fill in for the firemen, with the help of 827 Green Goddess fire engines. Mr Bob Crow, the leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said that if absence of firemen meant that Underground stations would be more dangerous, his men would consider not working on strike days. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, made a speech in Belfast in the wake of the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly, asking the Irish Republican Army for 'acts of completion'. 'We cannot carry on with the IRA half in, half out of this process,' he said.

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, told the House of Commons: 'Some say that we should fight terrorism alone and that issues to do with WMD [weapons of mass destruction] are a distraction. I reject that entirely.' The Northern Ireland Assembly was suspended and government of the province was resumed by Westminster a week after three men connected with Sinn Fein were charged with offences to do with the Irish Republican Army spying on the Northern Ireland Office. An inquiry by Mr Mike Tomlinson, the former chief inspector of schools, found that 1,945 A-level candidates had been unjustly deprived of the grades they deserved and more than 150 had lost places at their preferred universities because the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA board had arbitrarily lowered grades.

Police raided the offices of Sinn Fein in the Northern Ireland Assembly building at Stormont and several private addresses before charging Sinn Fein's head of administration at Stormont with passing on documents that could be 'useful to terrorists in planning or carrying out acts of violence'; two others were also charged. The action came after a year's investigation of spying by the Irish Republican Army at the Northern Ireland Office; transcripts of conversations between Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, and President George Bush of the United States were said to have been copied. Mr David Trimble, First Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly, flew to London for talks with Mr Blair.

Mrs Edwina Currie, the former Conservative minister, revealed that she had had a four-year affair from 1984 with Mr John Major, the former Conservative prime minister. The Chestnut Grove School in Balham, south-west London, began to offer the morning-after pill to 11-year-olds. After thousands of A-level students' results were found to have been manipulated, Sir William Stubbs was forced by Miss Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, to resign as chairman of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority; he suggested she should consider her own position.

The government published its long-awaited dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. It claimed that he has the capability to launch a chemical or biological attack within 45 minutes and could have a nuclear weapon within two years. Parliament was recalled to discuss the Iraq question. The Prime Minister said, 'Disarmament of all weapons of mass destruction is the demand. One way or other, it must be acceded to.' Sixty-four MPs, including 56 Labour members, voted against the government on a technical motion, but Cabinet opposition to war, namely from Robin Cook and Clare Short, appeared to wither.

The House of Commons was recalled for a day's debate on 24 September on the approaching war against Iraq, but no substantive vote will be allowed. Dr George Carey, in his last address as Archbishop of Canterbury to the Anglican Consultative Council, warned that unilateral action 'by dioceses and individual bishops' over homosexuality was driving the Anglican Church 'towards serious fragmentation and the real possibility of two (or, more likely, many more) distinct Anglican bodies emerging'. Mr David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said that children of immigrant parents should talk to their mothers at home 'in English as well as in their historic mother tongue'.

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, lent his support to President George Bush of the United States in preparing for war against Iraq. Mr Blair flew to Camp David in Maryland for a three-hour meeting with Mr Bush to agree their strategy. On his return he took up an engagement to visit the Queen at Balmoral. In a message for 11 September to the British in New York the Queen said: 'We honour the courage and determination of those in our armed forces and others who are striving to bring those responsible for this outrage to justice and to prevent similar atrocities in the future. Right must and will prevail.' A list of 67 Britons killed that day was released by the Foreign Office. A service at St Paul's Cathedral attended by the Prince of Wales remembered all who had died.

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said at a press conference in Sedgefield that a dossier on Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons development would be published. 'I hate war. Anyone with any sense hates war,' he said. 'We are in absolute agreement that Iraq poses a real and an unique threat to the security of the region and the rest of the world.' In new procedures imposed by the government, the Criminal Records Bureau still had 7,000 school staff to vet when the autumn term began, and many children had to be sent home.

Mr Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, called for a written constitution for the European Union; but in a speech to Scottish businessmen he played down the significance of the demand: 'The Conservative party has a constitution,' he said, 'and so do golf clubs in Scotland.' Dr Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, said that the situation in the Middle East was 'forcing Israel into postures that are incompatible in the long run with our deepest ideals'.

Mr John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, on being asked about British support for American action against Iraq, said: 'There is no serious division inside the Cabinet and there are debates inside the Cabinet.' A school caretaker, Ian Huntley, aged 28, was charged with the murder of two ten-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, whose bodies were found near Lakenheath, Suffolk, two weeks after their disappearance from their homes at Soham, Cambridgeshire. He was held at Rampton hospital and was unfit to appear before magistrates. Maxine Carr, aged 25, who lived with him, was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice. The government proposed a law against using mobile phones while driving.