PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Emperor Blair enjoying the cruel and sadistic spectacle of the Tories choosing a leader The government in the Queen's Speech gave some hint about the use of private enterprise in public services. Mr Michael Portillo declared himself a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative party. Miss Ann Widdecombe said she could not sit in a shadow Cabinet under him if it meant going through the sort of backbiting that she had endured from his close supporters for the last four years, and she then decided not to become a candidate; but Mr kin Duncan Smith and Mr David Davis did stand. Mr Peter Hain, who has replaced Mr Keith Vaz as Minister for Europe, remarked during the EU summit in Gothenburg that euro-enthusiasts should 'cool it'. Lord Cullen's inquiry into the Paddington train crash found that Railtrack had suffered from 'institutional paralysis'. After 17 weeks, the foot-andmouth epidemic had led to the deaths of 3,335,000 livestock in 1,762 outbreaks. David Sylvester, the art critic, died, aged 76. Cardinal Thomas Winning, the Archbishop of Glasgow, died, aged 76. In the Queen's Birthday honours, Sir Colin Davis the conductor was appointed a Companion of Honour; among the knights were Terence Farrell the architect and Jackie Stewart the racing driver; Eileen Atkins the actress was appointed DBE; David Bailey the photographer, Christopher Lee the actor and John Galliano the fashion designer were appointed CBE;
Pauline Collins the actress, Barry Ctyer the writer, Ben Olcri the writer. Moira Stuart the newsreader, Bert Weedon the guitarist and Robin Oakley the political journalist and racing columnist were appointed OBE; and Michael Heath the cartoonist, Gerry Anderson the Thunderbirds animator, and Janet Eagleton the sporran-maker were appointed MBE. British Telecom managed to complete a £5.9 billion rights issue. Independent Insurance, with half a million policy-holders, went into liquidation. The group Limp Bizkit cancelled a concert in Milton Keynes because Fred Durst, its singer, hurt his back.
PRESIDENT George Bush of the United States visited Europe and sketched his vision of eastward expansion for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, to include the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. He then met for the first time President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Ljubljana and said that they had a lot in common. The heads of government of states in the European Union met in Gothenburg, in Sweden, but their deliberations were overshadowed by violent demonstrations by anarchists and other opponents of world government; protesters smashed shop windows, burnt café furniture and threw heavy square cobblestones at police, who, since teargas is apparently not permitted in Sweden, opened fire with pistols, wounding three. Indian police shot dead 12 protesters in a crowd that set fire to the Manipur state assembly building. In the United States, Juan Raul Garza, a drugs smuggler and murderer, became the second man since the federal death penalty was reintroduced in 1988 to be executed, by injection. A bomb at a meeting in the city of Narayanganj held by the Awami League, the ruling party of Bangladesh, killed 50. M. Roland Dumas, the former foreign minister of France who had been sentenced to six months' jail for his part in the Elf oil scandal, claimed that others in government had known what was going on, including M. Hubert Vedrine, the present foreign minister. Mr Thaksin Shinawatra, the Prime Minister of Thailand facing debarment from office, tearfully told a court that he had not meant to leave undeclared £170 million-worth of assets; 'It is just impossible for me to keep track of my fortune,' he said. King Simeon II of Bulgaria, who reigned as a child during the second world war, won the most seats in the parliamentary election through the National Movement for Simeon II party. Hundreds of thousands of ducks were flown to northwest China to eat as many as possible of the vast swarms of locusts that have followed a severe drought.
CSH
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