November

Britain yields to French demands that its beef should be subjected to more safety checks, in the hope of convincing France to lift its ban on imports of British beef.

Gallaher, a British tobacco firm, announces a wish to bid for its French rival Seita, which itself is planning to merge with Spain’s Tabacalera.

A MORI-Financial Times poll of British businessmen shows a decline in support for membership of the euro. Only about half of those polled are in favour.

More than 50 Labour MPs vote against two key clauses in the welfare reform bill which will toughen the rules for claiming incapacity benefit. Figures show that in February 1999 nearly 6.1million people (17 percent of the working-age population) were on at least one important benefit (mostly paid to people without jobs).

At the same time an advertising campaign is launched inviting people to name benefit cheats. Fraud allegedly costs £2billion a year.

Lord Archer, the Tories’ candidate for mayor of London, possibly faces a third inquiry by the Department of Trade and Industry into his dealings in Anglia Television shares. In January 1994, Lord Archer, whose wife Mary is a director of Anglia, bought 25,000 shares on behalf of a Kurdish associate, Brooks Saib, despite a warning from Anglia’s board that directors and their spouses must not deal in Anglia’s shares on the basis of privileged information. Lord Archer denounces the revelation as "a preplanned Labour smear campaign."

A fierce battle is being waged within the Labour party about the nomination of its candidate for mayor of London. The two contestants are Ken Livingstone and Frank Dobson. Mr Livingstone, aka "Red Ken" — a reference to his attachment to Labour’s "loony left" — headed the Greater London Council until it was abolished by Margaret Thatcher in 1986. Frank Dobson, the former Health Secretary, a much more moderate candidate, has Tony Blair’s support. The Labour candidate is to be chosen by an electoral college of MPs and MEPs, trade unions and party members, a system designed by T. Blair to neutralise K. Livingstone’s appeal to the Labour rank and file. But many unions have revealed their intention of voting for Ken Livingstone, thus obliging Mr Blair to consider vetoing his candidacy.

It is revealed that the Passport Agency spent £16,000 on umbrellas for applicants queuing in the rain during the summer passport crisis.

Dr Ginette Harrison, Britain’s leading woman mountaineer, is killed in an avalanche in the Himalayas.

Australians vote in a referendum to keep the Queen as head of state (6 November).

The Foreign Policy Centre (a think-tank which boasts Robin Cook, the foreign secretary, as its president and Tony Blair as its patron) publishes a pamphlet called "Reinventing the Commonwealth." It calls for a modernised Commonwealth with transparent rules of membership based on democracy and the respect of human rights. Accordingly, they claim that Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia and Sri Lanka should be expelled if they go on violating freedom of expression, association and the press and do not fight corruption. Pakistan has already been suspended following the recent military coup. 

The pamphlet also suggests that the chair of each Commonwealth meeting should act as "Commonwealth president" to represent the organisation at big summits. Such an appointment would detract from the Queen’s formal role as head of the organisation. The headquarters might be moved from London to Delhi or Lagos.

Meanwhile the Queen attends the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Durban after an 8-day African tour during which she was virtually mobbed by enthusiastic crowds, proof that she still retains some appeal as symbolic head of state.

Graham Hall, an investigative journalist, author of an award-winning TV documentary on Animal Liberation Front extremists, says he was abducted by activists and branded on his back with the initials ALF.

The Government announces that genetically-modified crops will not be grown commercially in Britain until 2002.

An upbeat version of the national anthem adapted by Jonathan Dove, an opera composer, will be played at the Dome before 10,000 guests on Millennium night. There are numerous versions of the anthem already, including one by William Walton which was played at the 1953 coronation, and others by Edward Elgar or Benjamin Britten. Beethoven himself composed a series of variations.

Hereditary peers are voted out of the House of Lords. The 751 unelected aristocrats have elected 75 of their number ( 42 Tories, 28 crossbenchers, 3 Liberal Democrats and 2 Labour) to form a transitional House with 15 office-holders already elected and 2 holders of official positions — the Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain — who do not have to face election.

Michael Portillo, the former defence secretary, is selected as the Tory candidate to fight the Kensington and Chelsea by-election.

The High Court confirms that rare whales, dolphins and deep-sea corals must be protected from the effect of exploration for 200 miles around the British coastline under European legislation. 

The OECD says that Britons paid 6 percent more tax last year than in 1997, the largest annual rise in 16 years. The British taxpayers’ burden overtook Germany’s for the first time in a generation.

Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivers his pre-budget report. He announces a number of tax breaks for "corporate venturing" and an extension of the New Deal, a welfare-to-work scheme, to over-25 workers. Other popular measures include the news that 3million households with a pensioner over 75 will benefit from free TV licences; and that future tax rises on cigarettes and tobacco will be awarded to the NHS.

Britain 2000, a report on all the aspects of life in Britain at the turn of the century, shows that household incomes have doubled in the past 30 years. The gap between the rich and the poor has remained almost unchanged since 1971 and the average income of the top fifth of households is almost 20 times that of the bottom fifth.

The Government sets up an inquiry into the impact of a hunting ban on the countryside and wildlife.

British Midland confirms that Germany’s Lufthansa has acquired a 20 percent stake in the British airline, second only to British Airways in the number of landing slots at Heathrow Airport in London.

Britain’s Vodafone Air-Touch, the world’s biggest mobile-phone operator, is preparing a hostile bid for Germany’s Mannesmann while France Telecom has declared an interest in buying Orange, another British mobile-phone operator about to be acquired by Mannesmann.

Labour finally agrees to allow the left-winger Ken Livingstone to get on the Labour shortlist for London mayor including Frank Dobson, Glenda Jackson and Ken Baldry.

Lord Archer resigns from the London mayoral race after being exposed as a liar. He now admits that he persuaded his friend Ted Francis to lie for him before the libel action in which he denied sleeping with a prostitute in 1986. Lord Archer could face a civil action to reclaim £500,000 damages he received after winning the case.

Eurostar introduces its lowest fares. In December day returns of £45 will be available on Saturdays and Sundays.

Women security staff at Eurostar are now allowed to wear trousers after a survey of female passengers found that only 12 percent thought their skirts-only policy was justified.

The General Synod of the Church of England votes against adopting a new translation of the Lord’s Prayer which would have replaced the line "And lead us not into temptation" with "Save us from the time of trial." A new version of the Creed is accepted.

One sex scene in a new film version of Mansfield Park, Jane Austen’s moral tale, has been censored in America to make the film suitable for children.

The Jubilee Line extension on London’s Underground is completed, as well as the Lewisham extension to London’s Docklands Light Railway.

The Stirling Prize awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects is won by the Natwest Medical Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, designed by the architects Future Systems.

The ban on serving British beef in Edinburgh’s primary schools is lifted.

The Government is ready to consider plans for British beef to carry labels identifying its country of origin to end the ban in France and Germany.

The Queen awards the George Cross—the highest civilian medal for gallantry—to the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Michael Portillo wins the Kensington and Chelsea by-election, a revenge on the humiliation of losing his Enfield Southgate seat in the 1997 general election. Tory sources say that Mr Portillo could soon be brought into a senior frontbench role. The former minister’s success puts an end to a difficult period after he took the gamble in September of speaking publicly of his homosexual experiences while he was a student at Cambridge University.

Annie Jennings, a former teacher and Britain’s oldest person, dies at 115 years.

The number of people connected to the Internet in British homes reaches 5 million. Another 14 million regularly use the Net at work.

Mohamed Al Fayed tells the High Court that Prince Philip masterminded a plot to murder his son Dodi and Princess Diana.

The Royal Opera House reopens after a £214-million redevelopment following its closure in June 1997.

The Department for Education and Employment publishes tables of the GCSE results achieved in each of the past 4 years by 5,000 state and independent schools in England. They also publish a list of 112 schools showing the greatest improvement in GCSEs since 1996. The most successful comprehensive school in absolute terms with 99 percent of its pupils passing at least 5 GCSEs is Thomas Telford, in Telford, Shropshire.

Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac and Lionel Jospin meet in London to prepare a plan on European defence to be presented at the Helsinki summit in December. They propose the creation of an autonomous multinational corps that would act independently of NATO to maintain peace in Europe.

The Ministry of Defence confirms an allegation that the army is considering recruiting young criminals who have served a short prison sentence "to give them a chance to serve their country."

Rhum Island, a Hebridean island thirty miles off the coast of Scotland and the property of the Scottish Natural Heritage, is trying to attract another score of permanent residents. [There used to be some 400 inhabitants at the turn of the century; today the local school has only seven pupils.] The newcomers, however, will not be allowed to buy any land and visitors will still need special permission to spend a night at Kinloch Castle, a former rest home for veterans of the Boer war converted into a luxury hotel. About 100 miles south, Texa Island is for sale at £120,000. 
 

December

(1) Chris Smith, the Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, reveals that the design for the £475 million redevelopment of Wembley Stadium (which is intended to be the centrepiece for Britain’s bids for the 2005 World Athletic Championships, the 2006 Football World Cup and the 2012 Olympics) is "football-biased," i.e. that it caters almost exclusively for football to the detriment of athletics. Its capacity is lower than Olympic standard, the roof covers only part of the running track and it would have to be closed for two years if it were to be converted for athletics. The Government orders the company responsible for the redesign to make it suitable for athletics competitions and to submit the altered plans within two weeks.

The Queen attends the gala opening of the newly refurbished Royal Opera House in London.

(2) The Electricity Regulator announces that electricity companies should cut electricity bills by an average 6 percent.

William Hague sacks Shaun Woodwoard, the Tory spokesman on London and a rising star of his opposition frontbench, for refusing to accept the Conservatives’ decision to oppose the repeal by Parliament of section 28 of the Thatcherite Local Government Act, which forbids local councils to promote homosexuality. [Shaun Woodward, a pro-European, One-Nation Conservative, holds liberal views over social issues.]
 
 

(3) Revelations that the Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool removed and stored the organs of up to 850 infants without their parents’ permission cause public outrage. The Health Secretary orders an independent inquiry into this and into allegations that other hospitals may have been guilty of the same breach of medical rules. A change in the law might occur.

The London Borough of Islington, which has some of the worst examination results in England, announces that it will pay teenagers £3.50 an hour to attend school on Saturday mornings. [The minimum wage for 18-to-21-year-olds is £3.20.]

Three people die as freak storms hit parts of Britain, particularly the West Midlands and Norfolk.

(4) Steven Norris, whose colourful private life caused outrage and who hoped to be selected automatically after Lord Archer’s demotion , decides to run again for nomination as the Tory candidate for London Mayor.

The developers of the Wembley Stadium reject the government’s demand that they should redraft their plans in order to make it meet the needs of athletics competitions.

The Daily Mail claims that a fifth of English and Welsh students (and one in four Scottish students) drop out of their university courses.

(6) In an attempt to counter claims that the Government is not doing enough to help people outside south-east England and to show that it is determined to combat poverty and economic divisions wherever they lie, the Prime Minister sets out on a two-day tour of north-west England. The move aims to highlight the conclusions of Sharing the Nation’s Prosperity, a government report that refutes the idea that there is a clear-cut divide between the "downtrodden north and the prosperous south" and shows that variations in living standards within regions are as significant as those between the regions. 

The Health Minister dismisses as ludicrous allegations that elderly patients are dying in NHS hospitals because of an unspoken policy of "involuntary euthanasia," under which they are allegedly deprived of food, water and proper treatment because of a severe pressure on beds and lack of funding. The charity Age Concern and other campaigners for the elderly call on the government to take immediate action by setting up an inquiry while patients’ families and patients’ organisations threaten to take cases to the European Court of Human Rights.

A TUC report shows that racism and discrimination are rife in the British workplace.

The Government announces a new scheme to disperse asylum seekers around the country in order to spread the burden of supporting them away from south east England.

Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, announces that the cost of a passport will increase by £7 to £28.

FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), football’s governing body, announces that most of the action at World Cup matches will henceforth be broadcast through satellite, cable or pay-as-you-view television.

It emerges that police forces in England and Wales are more than 3,000 officers short owing to long-term sick leave and vacancies.

(7) Addressing an audience in New York, Lady Thatcher attacks the Government’s plan for a European defence system, claiming that it would undermine NATO. 

In a further attempt to encourage "home diagnosis," the PM launches an interactive website (http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk) as an extension of the existing "NHS Direct" lifeline. The site will give advice on common health concerns as well as general information about the NHS (A-Z Guide to the NHS).

The two Libyans accused of the December 1988 Lockerbie bombing make their first public appearance in a pre-trial hearing in a Scottish court sitting in The Hague. The trial itself will start on 3 May 2000.

The Government announces plans to ban all-male clubs.

Water companies warn that thousands of jobs are at risk because of tough price controls imposed by the water industry regulator, OFWAT

In a report called Choice, Choice, Choice, the right-wing Institute of Directors calls for the introduction of "education passports" to open up competition between state and private schools. Under the proposed scheme, parents who cannot afford private education would be given a £2,500 voucher to buy a place for their child in either a private or state school. The voucher scheme would be funded through further privatisation of schools and the abolition of LEAs.

(8) The Foreign Office agrees to pay nearly £150,000 in costs and damages to an arms dealer (Dunk) wrongly convicted of smuggling machine-guns to Iraq in 1995.

The Prince of Wales opens the first treatment centre dedicated to breast cancer at the Institute for Cancer Research in London.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer refuses to sign a deal with the EU on a Europe-wide "savings tax" [a compulsory 20 percent levy on interest payments from savings held by non-residents across Europe] on the grounds that it would severely damage the City’s lucrative Eurobond industry and drive business to the US or Switzerland. [The proposed European tax, also known as the "withholding tax," is designed to prevent EU citizens investing in neighbouring countries to escape paying tax on interest in their own.]

In the House of Commons, the Deputy Prime Minister, who is widely accused of mishandling a number of issues [in particular the partial privatisation of the London Underground and the Air Traffic Control service] and blaming motorists for the failure of his transport policies, faces a Tory assault as he defends his performance as Transport Secretary. He announces that the Government is abandoning plans to privatise part of the London Underground.

In contradiction to Tony Blair’s assertions that the North-South divide is a myth, a new survey carried out by the independent New Policy Institute concludes that the extent of poverty is close to record levels, especially in the North of England and in Scotland. 

The Governor of the Bank of England says that the British finance industry has not suffered from Britain’s failure to join the European single currency and that it will continue to thrive outside the euro zone.

The Tories’ ethics and integrity committee, which is said to be independent of the party leadership, hears Lord Archer answering accusations that he brought the party into disrepute by committing perjury.

(9) The 500,000 surviving coalminers launch a campaign to have the surpluses from their pension funds [which are currently paid into the Treasury] used to regenerate their coal field communities. This would mean £4 billion in lost revenue for the Government.

A controversial statue of Diana, Princess of Wales depicted as a Madonna is exhibited at the Liverpool Tate Gallery. 

The Government and the farming community react with anger and frustration at France’s refusal to lift its ban on British beef.

Jaguar lends its workforce to carry out essential repairs in Liverpool state schools.

Presenting the 1999 Community Police Officer of the Year award at St James’s Palace, the Prince of Wales criticises the "bewildering portrayal" of police officers in some TV programmes.

(10) The Commission for Racial Equality orders an inquiry into the Crown Prosecution Service’s allegedly racist employment practices.

The PM announces that he will take legal action against France over the beef ban.

The Government launches a multi-million-pound poster campaign urging English people to give up smoking. [Twenty-eight percent of the population of England smoke.]

Tony Blair flies to Helsinki to face one of his most difficult European summits.

(11) Steven Norris is excluded from the Tories’ mayoral shortlist.

Rural Economies, the Cabinet Office Performance and Innovation Unit’s newly-published report, proposes wide-ranging changes to boost flagging rural economies. It suggests, inter alia, that local councils should issue vouchers to cover public transport or taxi fares for poorer villagers and encourage car-sharing and that magistrates should allow village pubs to convert part of their premises to shops and post-offices. In its most controversial proposal, it recommends that the tight restrictions on building on agricultural land should be removed. [Under the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, ownership of rural land does not give you an automatic right to live on it.] 

A Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) report reveals that British employees work longer hours but receive less money than their European counterparts. Blaming the £2,000 difference in average pay on poor management and a lack of basic skills, it urges British workers to "work smarter, not harder" and industry bosses to encourage innovation. 

It emerges that thousands of British schools are still banning British beef from their menus.

(13) John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, who has lately come under fire from various quarters for his performance in government and his alleged "anti-car" stand, hits back at his critics in the Commons by outlining a ten-year £80 billion plan to tackle Britain’s acute transport problems. While he makes it clear that he remains in charge of the government’s transport policy, he says that the Transport Minister, Lord Macdonald of Tradeston, will be responsible for working out the details of the programme and will henceforth be in charge of the day-to-day direction of transport matters.

Richard Branson, the Virgin tycoon, who has pledged to run a non-profit lottery (the People’s Lottery), announces that he will be bidding for the licence to run the National Lottery, when it comes up for renewal in October 2001. The contract is currently in the hands of an American company, Camelot (see Living Archives, September 1999, 7-10).

Joseph Heller, the author of the celebrated black comedy, Catch-22, dies aged 76.

(14) In a bid to attract more women and people from ethnic minorities into the Civil Service, Sir Richard Wilson, the Cabinet Secretary, unveils plans to reform Civil Service pay and benefits.

The disgraced former Cabinet minister, Jonathan Aitken, who was jailed in June 1999 for perjury and perverting the course of justice, is allowed out of prison to spend Christmas at home with his family. 

After much acrimonious wrangling over Steven Norris’ candidacy, the Tory party denies widespread claims that its selection process is in a shambles and decides to let the controversial former cabinet minister to stand again on its shortlist for mayor of London. Steven Norris is expected to emerge as the front-runner among the six Tory hopefuls for the post of Mayor of London.

The European Commission launches a legal action against France to force it to comply with EU law and end its embargo on British beef.

(15) The Commons Standards and Privileges Select Committee reprimands William Hague for failing to declare in the Register of Members’ Interests that he used regularly for almost two years Lord Archer’s private gym in his £5 million apartment overlooking the Thames.

The European Court of Human Rights rules that the boy killers of the Liverpool toddler James Bulger did not receive a fair trial in 1993 and that the then Home Secretary acted in breach of their human rights when he fixed their sentences. 

A poll shows that William Hague’s ratings are now worse than that of any opposition leader since Neil Kinnock in 1988 (54 percent are dissatisfied with him while 57 percent are satisfied with Tony Blair).

The headline rate of inflation rises from 1.2 percent to 1.4 percent, while the underlying rate stays at 2.2 percent.

Alan Donnelly, a Labour MEP, resigns his European Parliament seat.

(16) The European Court of Justice rules that British men aged over 60 are entitled to winter fuel payments. [The current regulations under which women are eligible for such payments at 60 and men at 65 are ruled to be in breach of a European directive banning sex discrimination over social security benefits.] 

The Chancellor of the Exchequer says that he will back the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to put up interest rates again in the New Year despite opposition from industry and the unions.

The Government announces that while unemployment has fallen to a twenty-year low, average earnings jumped by 0.2 percent to 4.9 percent in the year to October. It calls for responsible wage behaviour in both the private and public sectors so that steady economic growth can continue. [Unemployment figures: 1,192,400 (claimant count); 1,716,000 (ILO count)]. 

Visiting the homeless in Central London, the Prime Minister announces 5,000 new beds for the homeless (500 for London).

(17) The two-year beef-on-the-bone ban is lifted. 

In his closing statement about the BSE inquiry which he chaired for almost two years, Sir Nicholas Phillips warns that new-variant CJD may kill many more people in the years to come. (The 48 people who have died of the disease could just "be the tip of the iceberg.")

The actress and writer Jill Craigie, wife of the former Labour leader Michael Foot, dies at the age of 85. 

Launching an information website (www.gm-info.gov.uk) Mo Mowlam, the Cabinet Office Minister, pledges to reform the "pretty haphazard" labelling system for genetically-modified foods and claims that the Labour government has created the toughest regulatory system in the world for GM foods.

It emerges that cases of tuberculosis have increased by more than a fifth over the last decade in England. 

BskyB snaps up a stake in the Premiership football club Sunderland.

(18) Denouncing what he sees as the Conservative party’s drift towards the right, its intolerance and its hardline stand over Europe and social policy, the former Tory spokesman on London, Shaun Woodward MP, defects to Labour. He rejects calls from his former political friends that he should resign his seat and fight a by-election.

(20) The Solicitor-General and the Crown Prosecution Service decide not to prosecute the "granny spier" Melita Norwood and four other alleged spies.

In its BBC funding report, the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee rejects proposals that the BBC should get a £24 digital licence supplement (the so called "digital poll tax") to fund an expansion of its digital channels on the grounds that it "would slow up the take up of digital TV and delay analogue switch off."

(21) The Government’s Chief Medical Officer warns that a future epidemic of new-variant CJD cannot be ruled out.

Winter weather creates havoc through much of Britain. 

At the close of a five-week trial, Neil Hamilton, the former Tory Cabinet Minister involved in the cash-for-questions scandal, loses his libel case against Mohamed Al Fayed. He is found guilty of corruptly accepting payments from the owner of Harrods in return for asking parliamentary questions.

Two men are convicted of the racist murder of a black musician, Michael Menson, in 1997. The Met is once again criticised for not conducting the initial investigation properly as it took them two years to secure convictions. 

It emerges that the parents of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence — whose murder in 1993 no one has ever been convicted of — are suing 42 police officers (from police constable to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner) for mishandling the investigation.

The Government publishes its anti-sleaze bill for cleaning up political party funding, under which foreign donations will be banned.

(22) A two-day seminar held at 11 Downing Street concludes with Gordon Brown announcing that the world’s 41 poorest nations will be cleared of their debts to Britain, a deal that will cost Britain £640 million over the next 20 years in lost interest. The Chancellor makes it clear, however, that the moneys thus freed will have to be spent productively on education , health, welfare and poverty relief.

The Government’s "Football Task Force" recommends that a Football Audit Commission (FAC), an independent regulator with statutory powers over football be set up to monitor the treatment of supporters and fans by football clubs. (Clubs should sell cheaper tickets, change their strips less often and consult their supporters before selling substantial quantities of shares).

The Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Chris Smith, announces that with the designers of the new Wembley stadium either unwilling or unable to come up with a solution suiting both football and athletics chiefs, he is obliged to ditch the latest plan for Wembley, which as a result will become a dedicated football stadium when it is completed in 2004. The £20 million of Lottery money earmarked for the new-look Wembley stadium will be handed back to athletics chiefs who will have to find a new venue for athletics: the 72,000 seat Twickenham stadium might be such a venue.

(23) A Korean cargo jet crashes moments after taking off from Stansted Airport near London, nearly missing two Essex villages. The four crew are killed.

(24) Looking back on a year free of the tribulations of previous years, the Queen delivers her Christmas message of hope to millions of people in a new-look broadcast shot in various locations. The PM delivers a message of gratitude to British troops stationed overseas and in his Christmas sermon the Archbishop of Canterbury urges people not to be fearful of the new millennium.

A group of celebrities (including Sir Paul McCartney) call on the Prime Minister to impose an immediate ban on hunting with dogs and to back Ken Livingstone’s anti-hunting private member’s bill.

(29) The Government announces that the "New Deal" put 169,000 young people into work by the end of November. [Under the scheme, which is delivered by the Employment Service in partnership with employers and local organisations, people aged 18 to 24 who have been on Jobseeker’s Allowance for six months or more are put into a four-month gateway period during which they attend several interviews with a personal adviser and get help with job-chasing.]

It emerges that United News and Carlton are to merge, with control of six ITV franchises. 

The "Millennium Prayer" (the Lord’s Prayer set to the tune of Auld Lang Syne by the popster Sir Cliff Richard) reaches number one in the charts despite universal derision and practically no airplay as BBC Radio Two and other stations have kept it off their playlists. 

(30) Writing in the Spectator, John Major urges William Hague to broaden the appeal of the Conservative party and warns him not to follow Thatcherite policies if he wants to win the next general election. He tells him not to let himself become a prisoner of the party’s right wing.

(31) The Queen is seen reluctantly linking hands with the PM to sing Auld Lang Syne in the £758-million Millennium Dome as the New Year comes in, during a ceremony attended by 10,000 invited guests and celebrities.

In spite of much bungling at and around the Dome, the New Year festivities pass off well with remarkable fireworks along the Thames.

In the New Year’s Honours List, Sir John Birt (the former director-general of the BBC) and Sir Leon Brittan (the former Conservative Cabinet minister and former vice-president of the European Commission) are made life peers; the actress Julie Andrews and the singer Shirley Bassey are made Dames; and Richard Branson, the creator of the Virgin business empire, receives a knighthood. 

George Harrison, the former Beatle, is stabbed in the chest by an intruder at his Oxfordshire home. 

According to Nationwide, house prices in the UK rose by 13.1 percent in 1999 and the average cost of a house is now £75,060.

The only newspapers to increase their circulation in 1999 were the Financial Times (+12.94% on 1998), the Independent (+1.35%) and the Daily Mail (+0.72%).

According to a recent poll, six people out of ten believe the Millennium Dome is not an appropriate international symbol for Britain.