Events from the year 1988 in the United Kingdom. The year saw the merger in March of the SDP and the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats. There were also two notable disasters this year: the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion and the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
Incumbents Monarch – Elizabeth II Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
Events
January January – Elizabeth Butler-Sloss becomes the first woman to be appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal. 3 January – Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving UK Prime Minister this century, having been in power for eight years and 244 days. 4 January – Sir Robin Butler replaces Sir Robert Armstrong as Cabinet Secretary, on the same day that Margaret Thatcher makes her first state visit to Africa when she arrives in Kenya. 5 January – Actor Rowan Atkinson launches the new Comic Relief charity appeal. 7 January – Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock calls for a further £1,300,000,000 to be made available for the National Health Service. 8 January – The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders reveals that new car sales in Britain last year exceeded 2,000,000 for the first time. The Ford Escort was Britain's best-selling car for the sixth year running. 11 January – The government announces that inflammable foam furniture will be banned from March next year. 14 January – Unemployment figures are released for the end of 1987, showing the eighteenth-successive monthly decrease. Just over 2,600,000 people are now unemployed in the United Kingdom – the lowest figure for seven years. More than 500,000 of those unemployed, found jobs in 1987. 22 January Colin Pitchfork is sentenced to life imprisonment after admitting the rape and murder of two girls in Leicestershire in 1983 and 1986, the first conviction for murder in the UK based on DNA fingerprinting evidence. Peugeot's British-built 405 saloon, winner of the European Car of the Year award, goes on sale in Britain. A five-door estate model is due later this year. 23 January – David Steel announces that he will not stand for the leadership of the new Social and Liberal Democratic Party. 24 January – Arthur Scargill is re-elected as Leader of the National Union of Mineworkers by a narrow majority. 28 January – The Birmingham Six lose an appeal against their convictions.
February 1 February – Victor Miller, a 33-year-old warehouse worker from Wolverhampton, confesses to the murder of 14-year-old Stuart Gough, who was found dead in Worcestershire last month. 3 February – Nurses throughout the UK strike for higher pay and more funding for the National Health Service. 4 February – Nearly 7,000 ferry workers go on strike in Britain, paralysing the nation's seaports. 5 February – The first BBC Red Nose Day raises £15,000,000 for charity. 7 February – It is reported that more than 50% of men and 80% of women working full-time in London, are earning less than the lowest sum needed to buy the cheapest houses in the capital. 9 February – Helen McCourt, a 22-year-old insurance clerk from Lancashire (now Merseyside), disappeared after getting off a bus less than 500 yards from her home in the village of Billinge. Her body has never been found. 13 – 28 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, but do not win any medals. 15 February – Norman Fowler, Secretary of State for Employment, announces plans for a new training scheme which the government hopes will give jobs to up to 600,000 people who are currently unemployed. 16 February – Thousands of nurses and co-workers form picket lines outside British hospitals as they go on strike in protest against what they see as inadequate NHS funding. 26 February – Multiple rapist and murderer John Duffy is sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should never be released.
March 1 March – British Aerospace launches a takeover bid for the government-owned Rover Group, the largest British-owned carmaker. 3 March – The SDP amalgamates with the Liberal Party to form the Social and Liberal Democratic Party. Its interim leaders are David Steel and Robert Maclennan. The merger means that the Liberal Party has ceased to exist after 129 years. 4 March – Halifax Building Society reveals that year-on-year house prices rose by 16.9% last month. 6 March – Operation Flavius: a Special Air Service team of the British Army shoots dead three unarmed members of a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) Active Service Unit in Gibraltar. 7 March – Margaret Thatcher announces a £3,000,000,000 regeneration scheme to improve a series of inner city areas by the year 2000. 9 March – It is revealed that the average price of a house in Britain reached £60,000 at the end of last year, compared to £47,000 in December 1986. 10 March – The Prince of Wales (now Charles III) narrowly avoids death in an avalanche while on a skiing holiday in Switzerland. Major Hugh Lindsay, former equerry to the Queen, is killed. 11 March – The Bank of England £1 note ceases to be legal tender. 15 March – In the 1988 budget, Chancellor Nigel Lawson announces that the standard rate of income tax will be cut to 25p in the pound, while the maximum rate of income tax will be cut to 40p from 60p in the pound. 16 March – Milltown Cemetery attack: three men are killed and 70 are wounded by loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast during the funerals of the three IRA members killed in Gibraltar. 17 March – The fall in unemployment continues, with just over 2,500,000 people now registered as unemployed in the UK. However, there is a blow for the city of Dundee, when Ford Motor Company scraps plans to build a new electronics plant in the city – a move which ends hopes of 1,000 new jobs being created for this city which has high unemployment. 19 March – Corporals killings in Belfast: British Army corporals Woods and Howes are abducted, beaten and shot dead by Irish republicans after driving into the funeral cortege of an IRA member killed in the Milltown Cemetery attack. 29 March – Plans are unveiled for Europe's tallest skyscraper to be built at Canary Wharf. The office complex will cost around £3,000,000,000 to build, and is set to open in 1992.
April 9 April – The house price boom is reported to have boosted wealth in London and the South-East by £39,000,000,000 over the last four years, compared with an £18,000,000,000 slump in Scotland and the North-West of England. 10 April – Golfer Sandy Lyle becomes the first British winner of the Masters. 21 April – The government announces that nurses will receive a 15% pay rise, at a cost of £794,000,000 which will be funded by the Treasury. 24 April – Luton Town FC beat Arsenal in the Littlewoods Cup final at Wembley 3–2. The match was won in the 92nd minute with a goal by Brian Stein after Luton had come back from being 2–1 down and goalkeeper Andy Dibble saving a penalty in the 79th minute. Luton scorers Brian Stein (2) and Danny Wilson. 96,000 fans were in attendance.
May May – The first group of sixteen-year-olds sit General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations, replacing both the O-level and CSE. The new qualifications are marked against objective standards rather than relatively. 2 May – Three off-duty British servicemen are killed in the Netherlands by the IRA. 6 May – Graeme Hick makes English cricket history by scoring 405 runs in a county championship match. 7 May – The proposed Poll tax (referred to by the Government as the Community Charge), which is expected to come into force next year, will see the average house rise in value by around 20%, according to a study. 14 May – Wimbledon F.C., who have been Football League members for just eleven seasons and First Division members for two, win the FA Cup with a 1–0 win over league champions Liverpool at Wembley. Lawrie Sanchez scored the winning goal in the first half, while Liverpool's John Aldridge missed a penalty in the second half. In Scotland, Celtic beat Dundee United 2–1 in the Scottish Cup final with two late goals from Frank McAvennie to complete the Scottish double. 19 May Unemployment is now below 2,500,000 for the first time since early-1981. House prices in Norwich, one of the key beneficiaries of the current economic boom, have risen by 50% in the last year. 24 May Local Government Act becomes law. The controversial Section 28 prevents local authorities from "promoting homosexuality". Local authorities are also obliged to outsource more services, and dog licences are abolished (except in Northern Ireland). Albert Dock in Liverpool reopened by Prince Charles (now Charles III) as a leisure and business centre including the Tate Liverpool art museum. 31 May – The controversial BBC film Tumbledown is broadcast despite Ministry of Defence concern.
June 2 June – U.S. President Ronald Reagan makes a visit to the UK. 11 June – Some 80,000 people attend a concert at Wembley Stadium in honour of Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid campaigner who has been imprisoned since 1964. 15 June – Six British soldiers are killed by the IRA in Lisburn. 16 June – More than one hundred English football fans are arrested in West Germany in connection with incidents of football hooliganism during the European Championships. 18 June – England's participation in the European Football Championships ended when they finished bottom of their group having lost all three games. 21 June – The Poole explosion of 1988 causes 3,500 people to be evacuated from Poole town centre in the biggest peacetime evacuation in the United Kingdom since World War II. 23 June – Three gay rights activists invade the BBC television studios during the six o'clock bulletin of the BBC News.
July July – The Freeze art exhibition is held at Surrey Docks in London Docklands. It is organised by Damien Hirst, and is considered significant in the development of the Young British Artists. 5 July – The Church of England announces that it will allow the ordination of female priests from 1992. 6 July Piper Alpha disaster: the Piper Alpha oil rig in the North Sea explodes and results in the death of 167 workers. A contractor's relief driver pours twenty tonnes of aluminium sulphate into the wrong tank at a water treatment plant near Camelford in Cornwall, causing extensive pollution to the local water supply. 8 July – The final large stationary steam engine in use in a British factory is shut down at a tannery in Otley. 14 July – The Kensington by-election, caused by the death of the sitting Conservative MP Sir Brandon Rhys-Williams on 18 May, takes place. Dudley Fishburn manages to hold the seat for the Conservatives by a narrow margin. 18 July – Paul Gascoigne, 21-year-old midfielder, becomes the first £2,000,000 footballer signed by a British club when he leaves Newcastle United and joins Tottenham Hotspur. 28 July – Paddy Ashdown, MP for Yeovil in Somerset, is elected as the first Leader of the Social and Liberal Democratic Party. 29 July – Most provisions of the Education Reform Act come into effect in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Act introduces Grant-maintained schools and Local Management of Schools, allowing schools to be taken out of the direct control of local government; a National Curriculum with Key Stages; an element of parental preference in the choice of schools; published league tables of school examination results; controls on the use of the word 'degree' by UK institutions; and abolition of tenure for new academics. 31 July – Economists warn that the house price boom is likely to end next year.
August 1 August – A soldier is killed and Inglis Barracks in London is damaged in a bombing. 2 August – Everton F.C. pay £2,300,000 for West Ham United striker Tony Cottee, 22, breaking the national record set six weeks ago by Paul Gascoigne's transfer.