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The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said some A&E departments were in a ‘complete state of crisis’. Railway workers belonging to the RMT union and Aslef began five days of strikes. Rail fares will rise by 5.9 per cent from March after the government decided to cap them; usually they go up a percentage point more than the July inflation figure, which in 2022 was 12.3 per cent. More than a million households with prepayment meters did not redeem their monthly energy support vouchers during the cold spell in December; postal strikes and difficulty of contacting suppliers were blamed. In December, the Bank of England had raised UK interest rates to their highest level for 14 years, to 3.5 per cent from 3 per cent. The next Budget is to be held on 15 March, the Treasury announced. In 2022, 45,756 migrants crossed the Channel by small boat, compared with 28,526 in 2021, the Home Office said.

Virginia Crosbie, the Conservative MP for Ynys Mon, said she had taken to wearing a stab-proof jacket when meeting constituents. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, appointed Sir Laurie Magnus, the chairman of Historic England, as his ethics adviser. Andrew Tate, aged 36, a British-American online ‘influencer’, was detained in Romania as part of an investigation into human trafficking and rape. Dame Vivienne Westwood, the fashion designer, died, aged 81. Scarborough cancelled its new year fireworks to avoid disturbing a walrus that spent a couple of days ashore in the harbour.

Of the 1,107 recipients of New Year honours, 50 per cent were women. Dame Mary Quant was appointed a Companion of Honour. Among those knighted were Brian May, the guitarist of Queen, Professor Vernon Bogdanor, the constitutionalist, Grayson Perry, the ceramicist, and Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi. David Sutherland, an artist who has drawn for the Beano for 60 years, was appointed OBE, as was the captain of the successful England women’s football team. BEMs were given for services to Isle of Man Railways, to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, to Asset Recovery in the service of HM Revenue & Customs and to Woking.

Abroad

At the prospect of China opening its borders from 8 January to citizens leaving on holiday, the United States, followed by other countries including England, stipulated that before boarding flights, Chinese passengers must show a negative Covid test. Hospitals in China were filling with Covid patients and many died, though China denied this. US officials said that a Chinese jet got within 20 feet of an American military plane in international airspace over the South China Sea. The Republican Kevin McCarthy failed in three consecutive votes to be elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. Tesla said it had delivered a record 1.3 million electric cars in 2022, 40 per cent more than in 2021. The US Drug Enforcement Administration said that in 2022 it intercepted enough fentanyl to kill every American.

On 1 January, Ukraine struck a building in the city of Makiivka in the Donetsk region housing Russian forces; Ukraine said 400 had been killed, Russia said 89, and officials blamed soldiers using mobile phones for giving away the location. Russia continued with its bombardment of Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine with missiles and drones. In response to the rise in energy prices, Germany is to pay December’s monthly gas bill for all households; France maintained a price freeze by the state-owned energy provider, Électricité de France; Spain introduced its third package of support for energy consumers. The Alps experienced a shortage of snow for skiers. The bodies of 28 people were found, shot dead, in the town of Nouna in Burkina Faso, where two million people have been displaced by an Islamist insurgency. The EU said it would start proceedings to remove parliamentary immunity from two MEPs implicated in an ongoing corruption scandal; another MEP, one of the European parliament’s vice-presidents, the Greek socialist Eva Kaili, is in pre-trial detention after allegedly being involved in bribery by Qatar. Dubai abolished its 30 per cent tax on alcohol in an apparent effort to encourage tourism. Croatia adopted the euro and joined the Schengen zone. Pope Benedict XVI, who had reigned from 2005 until his abdication in 2013, died aged 95; as Joseph Ratzinger he had previously been a prominent theologian. Pele, the great Brazilian footballer who played in three World Cup-winning teams, died aged 82.