January
The government introduced a Health Bill to give control of the NHS budget to GPs. Andy Coulson resigned as head of communications at Downing Street. Prisoners set Ford open prison on fire. Gerry Rafferty, the singer, died, aged 63. Nigel Pargetter fell to his death from the roof at Lower Loxley. A fox weighing 26.5lb, suspected of having killed a cat, was trapped at Maidstone. President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia in the face of a popular uprising. Crowds rioted in Cairo. Floods drove people from their homes in Sri Lanka, Brazil and Australia. Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman, was wounded by a shot to the head at Tucson, Arizona. Three thousand dead blackbirds fell on the city of Beebe, Arkansas.
February
The government dropped plans to sell off woodland. The Queen caught a train from King’s Lynn to King’s Cross. MPs rejected a European Court of Human Rights ruling giving prisoners the right to vote. NHS
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