Portrait of the year | 12 December 2012

January

Britain’s public debt rose above £1,000 billion for the first time. Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, was stripped of his knighthood. The High Speed 2 rail link between London and Birmingham was given the go-ahead. Police removed protestors’ tents in Parliament Square under a new act. Abu Qatada won an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against deportation to Jordan. In Syria protestors continued to be killed. In Saudi Arabia 28,000 women applied for jobs in lingerie shops, in which only men could previously serve.

February

The High Court ruled that prayers said at meetings of Bideford council were unlawful. Police removed tents from a protest camp at St Paul’s, set up on 15 October. The Greek government held endless talks with the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to avoid financial meltdown. Syrian forces attacked Homs. Scientists in Russia propagated narrow-leafed campion from fruits buried by Arctic ground squirrels 32,000 years ago.