The Spectator

A portrait of 2017: Brexit stumbled forward, Big Ben was silenced and sexual allegations swept the world

January

‘No deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain,’ Theresa May, the Prime Minister, declared in a speech at Lancaster House. Britain would leave the single market and customs union on leaving the European Union, she said. The Supreme Court ruled that only by an Act of Parliament could Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty trigger Britain’s departure. Mrs May held the hand of President Donald Trump as they walked down a declivity at the White House; she asked him to make a state visit in 2017, but it was not to be. Mr Trump suspended entry to America for people from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. A man shot dead 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub. Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime Minister, took out advertisements telling immigrants: ‘Behave normally or go away.’ About 100 migrants drowned off Libya. The Earl of Snowdon, married to Princess Margaret 1960-78, died aged 86.

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