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2012 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 2012 in the United Kingdom. This was the year of the Summer Olympics in London as well as the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

Incumbents

Events

January

  • 3 January – After a trial based on new forensic evidence, Gary Dobson and David Norris are convicted of the racist murder of black London teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was killed in April 1993. On 4 January they are sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder, with minimum term of just over 15 and 14 years respectively.
  • 6 January – Mobile phone operator O2 announces plans to provide free internet to millions of residents and visitors in central London by launching Europe's largest free Wi-Fi zone.
  • 10 January
  • The Scottish Government announces that it plans to hold the referendum on Scottish independence in the autumn of 2014.
  • Five Muslim men go on trial at Derby Crown Court for calling for gay men to be killed, the first such prosecution under hate crime legislation.
  • 20 January – Press TV, an English language news channel owned by the Iranian Government, is forced off air in the United Kingdom after Ofcom revokes its broadcasting licence for breaching the terms of the Communications Act.
  • 21 January – Under new guidelines to come into force from 30 April, clinics which charge for pregnancy services including abortions will be able to advertise their services on radio and television after the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice rules there is no justification for barring such advertising.
  • 23 January – John Anslow, a prisoner charged with murder following a fatal shooting in 2010, escapes from the van transporting him to a court appearance following an armed ambush near Redditch, Worcestershire.
  • 24 January – UK government debt has risen above £1,000,000,000,000 for the first time.
  • 25 January
  • Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, sets out the question – "Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?" – that he intends to ask voters in a referendum in 2014.
  • Official figures reveal that the UK economy shrunk by 0.2% in the final three months of 2011.
  • 31 January – Former Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Fred Goodwin loses his knighthood as a result of the near collapse of the bank in 2008.

February

March

April

  • 7 April – The 158th University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge is stopped mid-race due to a swimmer in the water. Cambridge go on to win when a clash of oars at the restart leaves Oxford with a broken paddle.
  • 12 April – Transport for London bans an advertising campaign due to run on buses by a Christian group; which was suggesting that gay people could be cured by therapy.
  • 15 April – Centennial anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is commemorated in Southampton, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and around the world.
  • 18 April – In a rare move, television cameras are allowed into the High Court in Edinburgh to film the sentencing of David Gilroy for the murder of Suzanne Pilley.
  • 20 April – Belfast MAC (Metropolitan Arts Centre), designed by Hackett Hall McKnight, opens in Northern Ireland.
  • 22 April – 30-year-old Claire Squires collapses and dies while running the London Marathon, the tenth death in the race's history. She had planned to raise £500 for The Samaritans, but within a day members of the public have donated £219,000. The end of the year would see this total rise to nearly £1M.
  • 25 April – Figures from the Office for National Statistics indicate the UK economy has returned to recession after shrinking by 0.2% in the first three months of 2012, bringing about a much-feared double-dip recession.
  • 30 April – Figures released by the Met Office show that April was the wettest on record in the United Kingdom.

May

  • 3 May – Local elections held in England, Scotland and Wales.
  • Labour makes gains and wins the largest number of councillors in contested seats in England and Wales and the SNP making gains and winning the largest number of councillors in Scotland. The estimated voting share is: 39% Labour, 31% Conservative, 16% Liberal Democrats and 14% other.
  • Boris Johnson is re-elected as Mayor of London with 51.5% of the vote. Ken Livingstone subsequently says it would be his 'last election'. In the London Assembly, Labour becomes the party with the greatest number of seats, with minor losses for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. The British National Party loses its only seat. Of 25 seats, the final tally stands at: Labour 12, Conservatives 9, Liberal Democrats 2, Green 2.
  • 5 May – Chelsea win the seventh FA Cup of their history with a 2–1 win over Liverpool in the final.
  • 5 May - Wales Coast Path officially launched.
  • 13 May – Manchester City win the Premier League title on goal difference ahead of cross city rivals United, their first top division title since 1968.
  • 16 May – The Office for National Statistics publishes figures which show that unemployment has fallen by 45,000 in the three months to March to 2,625,000, a rate of 8.2%. Youth unemployment has fallen to 1,020,000, a rate of 21.9%. Average weekly pay, including bonuses, grew by 0.6%. The claimant count dropped by 13,700 in April to 1,590,000, and the March figure is revised to show a fall of 5,400 rather than a rise of 3,600.
  • 18 May – The Olympic flame arrives at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall on board a British Airways Airbus A319, with custom gold livery and named "The Firefly" as flight BA2012 from Athens, ready for the torch relay ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
  • 19 May
  • the Olympic torch relay begins when members of 771 Naval Air Squadron take the flame from Culdrose to Land's End by Sea King helicopter, Olympic sailing star Ben Ainslie runs the first leg of the relay.
  • Chelsea win the European Cup for the first time in their history, defeating Bayern Munich of Germany on penalties after a 1–1 draw in Munich's Allianz Arena.
  • 22 May – The Royal Navy's first female warship commander, Commander Sarah West, takes up her post on HMS Portland at Rosyth.
  • 25 May – Millionaire's daughter Laura Johnson, who drove looters around London during the 2011 riots is jailed for two years.

June

July

  • July – Auckland Castle, former seat of the Prince Bishops of Durham, is transferred from the Church Commissioners to a local charitable foundation.
  • 3 July – Bob Diamond resigns as the Chief Executive of British bank Barclays following a scandal in which the bank tried to manipulate the Libor and Euribor interest rates systems.
  • 4 July – Broadcaster George Entwistle is named as the next Director-General of the BBC beginning in autumn 2012.
  • 5 July – The Shard, the tallest building in Europe and the tallest habitable free-standing structure in the UK at 309.6 metres (1,016 ft), is officially opened.
  • 6 July – Andy Murray makes it to the final of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Singles, becoming the first Briton to do so in 74 years. He is defeated at the final two days later by Roger Federer.
  • 7 July – Britain's Jonathan Marray and Denmark's Frederik Nielsen win Wimbledon's men's double final by three sets to two. Marray becomes the first Briton to win such a match since 1936.
  • 10 July – The Trades Union Congress confirms the appointment of its first female General Secretary. Frances O'Grady will take up the role at the end of the year.
  • 17 July – The Office for National Statistics publishes its monthly inflation report. The consumer price inflation rate has unexpectedly fallen in June to 2.4%, its lowest level since November 2009. The retail price inflation figure shows a similar marked drop to 2.8%.
  • 18 July – The Office for National Statistics publishes figures which show that unemployment has fallen by 65,000 in the three months to May to 2,580,000 a rate of 8.1%. Average weekly pay, including bonuses, grew by 1.8% on the year. The claimant count rose by 6,100 in June to 1,600,000. With surprisingly good inflation and employment figures, the UK economy looks set to grow in the second half of 2012.
  • 22 July – Bradley Wiggins wins the 2012 Tour de France bicycle race, the first British rider ever to do so.
  • 27 July – 12 August – London hosts the 2012 Summer Olympics, beginning with an opening ceremony, and making the UK capital the first city to host the Games for a third time. The closing ceremony is on 12 August.

August

September

  • 7 September – Greater Gabbard wind farm construction completed.
  • 9 September – 2012 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony.
  • 10 September – Andy Murray wins the US Open Tennis Championship, the first British man to win a Grand Slam tournament since 1936.
  • 18 September – Two female police officers are killed in Hattersley, Greater Manchester, in a gun and grenade attack.
  • 20 September – Dale Cregan, 29, is charged with the murders of WPCs Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes in Greater Manchester. He is also charged with two other murders which occurred in the Greater Manchester area last month, as well as three attempted murders between May and August of this year.
  • 30 September – It is reported that an ITV documentary to be shown on 3 October in the Exposure series will reveal accusations that DJ and BBC TV presenter Sir Jimmy Savile, who died the previous year, sexually abused underage girls.

October

  • 1 October – Automatic enrolment to workplace pension schemes commences.
  • 3 October – The decision to award the rail franchise for InterCity West Coast to FirstGroup is scrapped by the government after what are described as "significant technical flaws" in the bidding process.
  • 8 October – Scientists warn of the dangers of using liquid nitrogen in drinks after an 18-year-old woman in Lancaster requires emergency surgery after consuming a cocktail containing the substance.
  • 11 October – Heavy rain in the United Kingdom causes flash flooding in the coastal village of Clovelly, Devon, damaging homes and pulling up cobbles in the street.
  • 12 October – The UK's largest independent investigation into police wrongdoing will be conducted following damning reports into the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.
  • 14 October
  • The Ministry of Defence says that five Royal Marines have been charged with murder over an incident involving the death of an insurgent in Afghanistan in 2011.
  • The Ministry of Defence will hold an investigation after journalists from The Sunday Times posed as lobbyists for a defence manufacturer and approached several senior retired officers to ask if they would help them secure contracts.
  • 15 October
  • British Prime Minister David Cameron and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond sign the Edinburgh Agreement – a deal setting out the terms of a referendum on Scottish independence.
  • Lieutenant General Sir John Kiszely resigns as president of the Royal British Legion following claims of his involvement with defence contract lobbying.
  • Essex Police begin an investigation after four children and their mother are killed in a suspicious house fire in Harlow. A fifth child dies in hospital on 18 October.
  • 16 October – The BBC appoints the heads of two separate inquiries into the substantial sexual abuse allegations against the late Jimmy Savile that have come to light. Former High Court judge Dame Janet Smith will review the culture and practices of the BBC during the time Savile worked there, while Nick Pollard, a former Sky News executive will look at why a Newsnight investigation into Savile's activities was dropped shortly before transmission.
  • 17 October
  • The government launches GOV.UK, a single website for government, closing the Directgov and Business Link websites.
  • Lancashire Police apologises after an officer used a Taser on a blind man whose white cane was mistaken for a samurai sword. The matter is also referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
  • 19 October – Scotland Yard launches a "formal criminal investigation" into Jimmy Savile, after 200 potential sexual abuse victims come forward.
  • 20 October – Frankel retires as the world's highest-rated racehorse after his fourteenth race in an unbeaten career.
  • 22 October – Surgeons have carried out the first ever robotic open-heart operations in Britain at the New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton.
  • 23 October
  • Leader of Birmingham City Council Sir Albert Bore warns that cuts in government grants to the city could lead to "the end of local government as we have known it".
  • James Bond film Skyfall premières at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
  • 24 October – The last analogue television broadcasts are made in the United Kingdom, in Northern Ireland, as the country completes its transfer to digital television.
  • 30 October – Britain's first 4G mobile network is launched, offering high-speed mobile data services in eleven major cities.

November

December

Undated

  • Despite beginning with drought in some areas, 2012 is the second-wettest year on record in the UK and the wettest ever in England.
  • British new car sales reach a post-recession high of 2,040,000 with the Ford Fiesta being Britain's most popular car for the fourth year in a row. The success of Nissan's British-built Qashqai crossover vehicle continues with more than 45,000 sales making it Britain's sixth-most popular new car. Mercedes-Benz enjoys a surge in sales, with its C-Class range achieving over 37,000 sales as Britain's ninth-most popular new car.

Publications

Births

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

See also

References