6 January – The
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders announces that a record of nearly 1.8 million cars were sold in Britain last year. The best-selling car for the second year running was the
Ford Escort with more than 174,000 sales.[1]
25 January – The government prohibits
GCHQ staff from belonging to any trade union.[4]
February
1 February
Japanese car maker
Nissan signs an agreement with the British government to build a car factory in Britain. This landmark deal means that foreign cars will be built in Britain for the first time, with the factory set to open during 1986.[5]
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Nigel Lawson announces that after 13 years, the
halfpenny will be demonetised and withdrawn from circulation.[6][7]
1 March – Labour MP
Tony Benn is returned to parliament after winning the
Chesterfield by-election, having lost his previous seat at the general election last year.
2 March – Just five months after becoming
Labour Party leader,
Neil Kinnock's ambition of becoming Prime Minister at the next election (due to be held by June 1988) are given a boost when Labour come top of a
MORI poll with 41% of the vote (compared to the 38% attained by the
Conservatives). Just over six months ago, the Conservatives had a 16-point lead over Labour in the opinion polls. However, Kinnock is still faced with the task of overhauling a triple-digit Conservative majority.[11]
23 March –
Hilda Murrell, 78-year-old rose grower and anti-nuclear campaigner, is found dead near her home in
Shropshire, five days after being reported missing.
West Mercia Police launch a murder investigation.
9 April – More than 100 pickets are arrested in violent clashes at the colliery at
Creswell, Derbyshire, and the
Babbington Colliery in
Nottinghamshire. It is estimated that 46 out of 176 British coal mines are currently active as miners fight government plans to close 20 coal mines across Britain.[18]
12 April
Arthur Scargill, the leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, rules out a national ballot of miners on whether to continue their strike, which has already lasted five weeks.[19]
22 April – In the wake of WPC Yvonne Fletcher's death, Britain severs diplomatic relations with
Libya and serves warning on its seven remaining Libyan diplomats to return to their homeland.
25 April –
Austin Rover launches its new
Montego four-door saloon which replaces the
Austin Ambassador and
Morris Ital and is derived from the
Maestro hatchback. A five-door estate version of the Montego is due later this year.
12 May –
Liverpool F.C. secure a third consecutive league title and the 15th in the club's history, despite being held to a 0–0 draw away at
Notts County.
19 May
Everton win the
FA Cup, their first major trophy for 14 years, with a 2–0 win over
Watford in the final at
Wembley Stadium. The goals are scored by
Andy Gray and
Graeme Sharp. Everton's last FA Cup triumph came in 1966, and they have now won the trophy four times.[21]
23 May – 16 people are killed in the
Abbeystead disaster, caused by exploding methane gas.
26 May – The football
British Home Championship, which has been contested by the four
home nations since 1884, witnesses its last game. Northern Ireland win the trophy.
29 May – Fighting at Orgreave colliery between police and striking miners leaves 64 injured.[4]
30 May
The Queen officially opens a new terminal at
Birmingham Airport. The terminal has been in use since the start of last month, replacing the original terminal that opened in 1939.[22]
Arthur Scargill is arrested and charged with obstruction at Orgreave.
June
1 June –
Murder of Mark Tildesley: A 7-year-old boy from
Wokingham in
Berkshire disappears after visiting a local fairground and being abducted and killed by a paedophile group led by
Sidney Cooke; only one named member of the gang is convicted of the crime (in 1992) and the victim's body will not be found (as of 2019).[24][25]
7 June – 120 people are arrested when fighting breaks out outside the
Houses of Parliament during a mass lobby by striking miners.
15 June – A miner picketing a
Yorkshire power station is killed by a lorry.
18 June –
Battle of Orgreave confrontation between picketing miners and police.
19 June –
Austin Rover launches the
Rover 200 saloon, the replacement for the
Triumph Acclaim which marks the end of the
Triumph brand after 61 years. Like its predecessor, the new car is the result of a venture with
Honda.
20 June – The biggest school examination shake-up in over 10 years is announced with
O-level and
CSE examinations to be replaced by a new examination, the
GCSE. The first GCSE courses will begin in September 1986 and will be completed in the Summer of 1988.[27]
June – British unemployment is at a record high of around 3.26 million – though a higher percentage of the nation's workforce were unemployed during the
Great Depression some 50 years ago.[30]
July
4 July – The government announces the abolition of dog licences.
9 July – A fire in the roof of
York Minster, probably caused by an electrical storm, causes extensive damage which is expected to cost millions of pounds to repair.[31]
Neil Kinnock's hopes of becoming Prime Minister are given a boost by the latest
MORI poll which puts Labour three points ahead of the Conservatives on 40%,
26 July –
Trade Union Act prohibits unions from striking without a ballot.[4]
11 August – Barefoot South African runner
Zola Budd, controversially granted
British citizenship earlier in the year, collides with
Mary Decker in the 3000 meters final at the Olympics, neither finishing as medallists.[34]
11 September – Police arrest
Malcolm Fairley at an address in
Kentish Town, London, following a nationwide manhunt for the sex attacker known as The Fox.[37]
26 September – The United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China sign the initial agreement to return
Hong Kong to China in 1997.[40]
28 September – The
High Court rules that the miner's strike is unlawful.
October
1 October –
David Jenkins,
Bishop of Durham, launches an attack on Margaret Thatcher's social policies. The
Durham area has been particularly hard hit by factory and mine closures since her election as Prime Minister five years ago.
3 October – Plans to expand the
Urban Enterprise Zone in
Dudley,
West Midlands, are approved; developers Don and Roy Richardson get the go-ahead to build a
retail park and shopping mall on the main part of the site. The first tenants will move to the site next year and the development is expected in the next 18 months, with scope for further service sector developments in the future.[41]
5 October – Police in
Essex make the largest cannabis seizure in British criminal history when a multimillion-pound stash of the drug is found on a
schooner moored on the
River Crouch near
North Fambridge village.[42]
9 October – Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends is first broadcast on
ITV, becoming one of the most successful children's TV programmes of all time since Postman Pat on the BBC three years prior.
10 October – The High Court fines the NUM £200,000 and
Arthur Scargill £1,000 for contempt of court.
There is good news for the state-owned car maker
Austin Rover. On the day that a facelifted version of its top-selling
Austin Metro, now available as a five-door as well as a three-door is launched, it is announced that sales for September have increased by 39% over the same period last year. The pre-facelift Metro was Britain's best selling car last month, while the
Maestro (launched 19 months ago) was the second best seller ahead of its key rival the
Ford Escort and the six-month-old
Austin Montego was the fifth best seller ahead of the
Ford Sierra as an estate version of it launches.[44]
The Bill, the long-running police drama, airs for the first time on
ITV. It debuted last year as a pilot show Wooden Top.[45] When the last episode is shown in 2010 it will be the longest-running police procedural in British television history.
18 October – Support for the Conservative government is reported to be improving after several months of dismal poll showings, with the latest
MORI poll putting them nine points ahead of Labour on 44%.[46]
23 October –
BBC News presenter
Michael Buerk gives a powerful commentary of the famine in
Ethiopia which has already claimed thousands of lives and reportedly has the potential to claim the lives of as many as 7 million more people. Numerous British charities including
Oxfam and
Save the Children begin collection work to aid the famine victims who are mostly encamped near the town of
Korem.
19 November – The number of working miners increases to around 62,000 when nearly 3,000 striking miners return to work.
20 November –
British Telecom shares go on sale in the biggest share issue ever.[16] Two million people (5% of the adult population) buy shares, almost doubling the number of share owners in Britain.[47]
28 November – The British Telecom share offer closes.
30 November
Tension in the miners' strike increases when two
South Wales miners are charged with
the murder of taxi driver David Wilkie, 35, who died when a concrete block was dropped on his car from a road bridge. The passenger in his car, who escaped with minor injuries, was a
miner who had defied the strike and continued going to work.
The UK and French governments announce their intention to seek private promoters for the construction of the
Channel Tunnel in order to build and operate it without public funding. The tunnel, for which proposals were first made as far back as 1802, is expected to be open in the early-1990s. The tunnel would be formally opened in a ceremony in 1994 by
Queen Elizabeth II and the
President of France.[50]
Richard Stone wins the
Nobel Prize in Economics "for having made fundamental contributions to the development of systems of national accounts and hence greatly improved the basis for empirical economic analysis".[51]
14 December –
Arthur Scargill, president of the NUM, is fined £250 and ordered to pay £750 for his involvement in the rioting at Orgreave coking plant on 29 May this year. He decides against appealing his convictions, despite his lawyers advising him to do so.[54]
21 December – The three-month-old son of The Prince and Princess of Wales is
christenedHenry Charles Albert David.[58] (He is and always has been called "Harry").
Non-diocesan
Bishop at Lambeth first appointed within the Church of England.
Vauxhall have a successful year in the motor industry. It has reported that its market share has doubled since 1981 and the year ends on an even bigger high when its
MK2 Astra range is elected
European Car of the Year.
Despite unemployment reaching a peak of nearly 3.3million this year (with the highest unemployment rate recorded since 1971 of 11.9% in February), inflation is still low at 5%.[60]
Youth unemployment (covering the 16–24 age range) stands at a record 1,200,000 – more than a third of the total unemployment count.[61]