Portrait of the year

January
Britain crept out of recession, with 0.1 per cent growth in the previous three months. Full-body scanners were to be introduced at British airports after a man tried to blow up a plane with explosives hidden in his underpants. Snow swept the land with the temperature falling to minus 22.3°C. An earthquake killed tens of thousands in Haiti and perhaps 1.5 million were made homeless. Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from prison in Turkey. Ali Hassan al-Majid, ‘Chemical Ali’, was hanged in Iraq. A British citizen was executed in China for smuggling 9lb of heroin. China said it had become the world’s biggest exporter.

February
Labour unveiled the slogan ‘A future fair for all’. Three Labour MPs and a Conservative peer were charged under the Theft Act 1968 over their expenses. Commander Ali Dizaei of the Met was sentenced to four years on charges of falsely arresting a man.