January
The first day of the year reached 16.3°C in St James’s Park, London. In France, 874 cars were set alight for the new year. Southern Railway suspended services because of staff absence through Covid. The legal obligation to wear face coverings in England ended. Sue Gray delivered her report into Downing Street parties. Together Energy became the 28th energy supplier to go bust as wholesale gas prices rose. Inflation reached 5.4 per cent. Some 1,339 migrants crossed the Channel in small craft. Around 100,000 Russian troops massed on the Ukraine border. Novak Djokovic was deported from Australia because he was not vaccinated against Covid.
February
The obligation to self-isolate after catching Covid was lifted in England. Boris Johnson, the prime minister, flew to Ukraine to stand next to President Zelensky. Russia invaded Ukraine. A 40-mile armoured convoy approached Kyiv. Volodymyr Zelensky rallied the nation. Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, used the Emergencies Act against lorry drivers protesting against compulsory vaccination for anyone driving in from the United States. Turkey told the world to call it Türkiye. The Queen signed a message for the 70th anniversary of her accession: ‘Your servant, Elizabeth R.’
March
The 400,000 people of Mariupol in Ukraine were left without light, heat or sanitation under bombardment, their houses burnt and bodies lying in the street. In Russia 4,644 demonstrators against the war were arrested on one day. Roman Abramovich was sanctioned; Chelsea football club functioned under licence. President Zelensky addressed a packed House of Commons by video. The Standards Commissioner prohibited John Bercow, the former Speaker, from ever obtaining a security pass to parliament. Twenty fixed-penalty fines were issued relating to No. 10 parties that broke Covid rules. The British-Iranian detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had her passport returned and flew to Britain.
April
Boris Johnson joined President Zelensky in Kyiv; local people gave him a pottery cock. At Bucha, hundreds of dead civilians were found, killed by occupying Russians. Ukraine sank the Moskva, the Russian Black Sea flagship. The UN said 7.7 million were displaced inside Ukraine; 5.2 million had fled abroad. Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, pushed a scheme to fly to Rwanda people deemed to have entered Britain unlawfully. Dame Cressida Dick’s time as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police ended. The legal age of marriage in England and Wales was raised to 18. Extinction Rebellion blocked London bridges. Emmanuel Macron was re-elected President of France, beating Marine Le Pen. Army worms devastated coffee crops in Uganda.
May
I nflation rose to 9 per cent. Ukrainian forces in Mariupol made a stand at the Azovstal steel works. Russia overran the Luhansk region. Finland and Sweden sought membership of Nato. Neil Parish stopped being a Conservative MP after he was seen looking at pornography on his mobile phone in the Commons chamber; he said he had been searching for farm machinery. Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt. John Lee Ka-chiu, a police chief, was elected Hong Kong’s leader; there was no other candidate. Police officers delayed for 45 minutes entering a classroom at Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman was killing 19 children. A woman from Arizona with one leg finished running 104 marathons in 104 days.
June
For her Platinum Jubilee, the Queen appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace and a flypast of Typhoons spelled out the figure 70. Johnson won a vote of confidence of Conservative MPs by 211 to 148. A plane with asylum-seekers did not take off for Rwanda after an intervention by the European Court of Human Rights. The US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, the judgment in 1973 that legalised abortion across the country. Fifty migrants were found dead in a lorry at San Antonio, Texas. A French court prohibited Grenoble from allowing burkinis in public swimming pools. The World Health Organisation sought a nicer name for monkeypox.
July
Boris Johnson agreed to resign as prime minister after days of resignations beginning with Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak. Sir Mo Farah revealed that he had been brought illegally from Djibouti aged nine and made to work as a servant. Russia and Ukraine signed agreements in Istanbul, under the aegis of the UN, to guarantee the export of grain. Heathrow limited to 100,000 the number of passengers who could fly from the airport each day. The population of the EU shrank for a second year running. At Coningsby, Lincolnshire, it reached 40.3°C.
August
On 1 August, 696 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats, bringing the year’s total to 17,000. Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, when asked whether President Macron was ‘friend or foe’, answered: ‘The jury is out.’ Energy bills would be £4,266 for a typical household by January, according to the consultancy Cornwall Insight. Inflation reached 10.1 per cent. Railwaymen and postmen went on strike. Sir Salman Rushdie, 75, was severely wounded by a man who stabbed him in the neck and abdomen on stage at Chautauqua in New York state.
September
Queen Elizabeth died at Balmoral on 8 September. Liz Truss had two days earlier kissed hands as the 15th prime minister of her reign. The Prince of Wales succeeded as King Charles III. Thousands queued for hours to pay their respects at Westminster Hall where the Queen’s body lay in state. Kwasi Kwarteng, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, cut taxes and raised spending in a ‘fiscal event’; markets responded by selling pounds. Ukraine recaptured territory south-east of Kharkiv. Russia kept the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Germany closed after maintenance. President Vladimir Putin did not attend the funeral of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union.
October
Rishi Sunak, aged 42, became prime minister despite Boris Johnson flying back from holiday to see if he could have the job back. Liz Truss’s resignation as leader of the Conservative party on her 45th day followed her decision not to abolish, after all, the 45p rate of tax. That proved insufficient to remove what the Bank of England called a ‘material risk’ to financial stability as it stepped in to buy bonds. Even sacking Kwasi Kwarteng was not enough. On one day, 990 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats, bringing the year’s total to 39,898, about 10,000 of whom were men from Albania, the Home Office said. Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the Fratelli d’Italia, became Italy’s first female prime minister. Xi Jinping was given a third term as China’s ruler. In Brazil the left-wing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat the right-wing incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro. President Putin declared Ukraine’s regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson part of Russia. In Iran protests against compulsory wearing of the hijab continued. Elon Musk went through with a $44 billion takeover of Twitter.
November
Jeremy Hunt, the new Chancellor, said: ‘We’re all going to be paying a bit more tax.’ Sir Gavin Williamson resigned from the cabinet following the publication of texts from him full of swear words. The Supreme Court ruled that Scotland had no power to hold an independence referendum without UK government consent. The Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives; the Democrats kept control of the Senate. The cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy in the United States. Russia withdrew from Kherson but continued to destroy energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine using missiles.
December
Everything was affected by strikes: railways, post, ambulances, nursing, universities, docks, coffin-makers. More than 44,000 migrants had crossed the Channel in small boats during the year. Stephen Flynn succeeded Ian Blackford as leader of the SNP at Westminster. France knocked England out of the World Cup. Iran hanged Mohsen Shekari, a protestor charged with ‘waging war on God’. China clamped down on widespread protests, then loosened some coronavirus restrictions. Avian flu made Christmas turkeys scarce. CSH
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