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Brexit was in crisis as the European Council (of heads of state or government) met. Theresa May, the Prime Minister, told the House of Commons that it was time for ‘cool, calm heads to prevail’. These proved in short supply. Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Penny Mordaunt, Chris Grayling, Liz Truss and Geoffrey Cox openly ate pizza in the office of Andrea Leadsom. The EU rejected Mrs May’s proposal that the UK as a whole could remain under the EU customs union for a definitely limited time after 2020 (when the planned transition period ends). Some hoped for no deal; some hoped for no Brexit. Mary Midgley, the philosopher, died aged 99. Failure of overhead electricity lines led to services from Paddington being cancelled. At Manchester Oxford Road station, 68 per cent of trains this year were found to be late.
John Bercow’s position as Speaker was called into question by Dame Laura Cox’s independent report on the House of Commons, which found bullying and sexual harassment in a culture of ‘deference, subservience, acquiescence and silence’ and concluded that the changes needed would be hard to make ‘under the current senior house administration’. Mr Bercow called for an independent body to be set up to investigate such allegations and told friends he would resign next summer. So-called religious hate crime cases grew from 5,949 last year to 8,336 this year, according to the Home Office; 52 per cent of the crimes were directed at Muslims. Not content with that, the Home Office announced a review of whether hatred of men, old people and goths should be added to the list. The Duchess of Sussex is expecting a child in the spring, who will be seventh in line to the throne.
Pay rose by an annual rate of 3.1
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