Portrait of the year: resignations, wars and kangaroo courts

January

The government stopped a Gender Recognition Bill passed by the Scottish parliament becoming law. Isla Bryson, now a transgender woman, was convicted of having raped two women; the 31-year-old was sent to a women’s prison, then transferred to one for men. A Met Police officer, David Carrick, aged 48, pleaded guilty to 24 charges of rape. Nadhim Zahawi was sacked as Conservative party chairman. Strikes by railway workers, Underground drivers, ambulance drivers, nurses and hospital doctors continued on and off all year. Ukraine struck a building in Donetsk housing Russian forces. A Russian missile destroyed a block of flats at Dnipro. Jacinda Ardern suddenly resigned as prime minister of New Zealand.

February

Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, announced her resignation. The Northern Ireland Protocol acquired a Windsor Framework. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine addressed the British parliament. President Joe Biden of America visited Kyiv. Fierce fighting continued at Bakhmut, where the Russian mercenary Wagner force was active. An earthquake killed more than 50,000 in Turkey and Syria. President Biden ordered a Chinese surveillance balloon to be shot down.

March

Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, appointed as his chief of staff Sue Gray, whose report into Downing Street lockdown breaches had damned Boris Johnson. Peter Murrell, the husband of Nicola Sturgeon, resigned as chief executive of the SNP; Humza Yousaf was elected its leader. Britain endured a week of chatter over Gary Lineker being stopped from presenting an episode of Match of the Day. Regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank in America. UBS agreed to buy the mortally wounded Credit Suisse. Russia and Ukraine suffered heavy loss of life in the ruins of Bakhmut.