Events from the year 1982 in the United Kingdom. The year was dominated by the Falklands War.
Incumbents
Monarch – Elizabeth II
Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher (Conservative) Parliament – 48th
Events
January
1 January – ITV launches three regional TV stations – Central, TVS (Television South) and TSW (Television South West), replacing ATV Midlands, Southern Television and Westward Television respectively. 2 January The Welsh Army of Workers claims responsibility for a bomb explosion at the Birmingham headquarters of Severn Trent Water. British Rail retires its last Class 55 Deltic diesel-electric locomotives from service. 10–15 January – The lowest ever UK temperature of −27.2 °C is recorded at Braemar, in Aberdeenshire. This equals the record set in the same place in 1895, and the record will be equalled again at Altnaharra in 1995. 11 January – Mark Thatcher, son of the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, disappears in the Sahara desert during the Paris-Dakar rally. 14 January – Mark Thatcher is found safe and well in the Sahara, six days after going missing. 18 January – "A Complaint of Rape", the third episode of BBC One fly on the wall documentary Police, showing police treating a female complainant dismissively, is broadcast, leading to changes in police treatment of rape allegations. 21 January – Miners vote against strike action and accept the National Coal Board offer of a 9.3% pay rise. 26 January – Unemployment in the United Kingdom is recorded at over 3,000,000 people for the first time since the 1930s. However, the 11.5% of the workforce currently unemployed is approximately half of the record percentage which was reached half a century ago.
February
February – Korean cars are imported to Britain for the first time with the launch of the Hyundai Pony, a range of three and five-door hatchbacks similar in size to the Ford Escort. 1 February – Sales of tabloid newspapers are reported to have been boosted substantially since last summer by the introduction of bingo. The Sun has reportedly enjoyed the biggest rise in sales, now selling more than 4,000,000 copies a day on a regular basis. 5 February – Laker Airways collapses, leaving 6,000 passengers stranded, with debts of £270,000,000. 6 February – The Queen commemorates her Pearl Jubilee. 12 February – Opening of the first Next clothing store, a rebranding of the merged Joseph Hepworth and Kendall chains masterminded by George Davies. It specialises in women's clothing. 19 February – The DeLorean car factory in Belfast is put into receivership. 22 February – The Apostolic Delegation is promoted to the Apostolic Nunciature to Great Britain by Pope John Paul II; the first pro-nuncio is Bruno Heim. 23 February – The Glasgow-registered coal ship St. Bedan is bombed and sunk by an IRA unit driving a hijacked pilot boat on Lough Foyle in Northern Ireland. 25 February – The European Court of Justice rules that schools in Britain cannot allow corporal punishment against the wishes of parents. 27 February – The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company gives its last Gilbert and Sullivan performance at the end of a final London season, having been in near-continuous existence since 1875.
March
3 March – The Queen opens the Barbican Centre, a performing arts venue in the City of London. 12 March – Closure of Queen Street Mill, Burnley, the last steam-driven weaving shed to work commercially. 18 March A legal case brought by Mary Whitehouse against the National Theatre concerning alleged obscenity in the play The Romans in Britain ends after the Attorney General intervenes. An Argentine scrap metal dealer raises the Argentine flag in South Georgia, Falkland Islands – a British overseas colony. 19 March – Argentines land on South Georgia Island, precipitating the Falklands War. 25 March – Roy Jenkins wins the Hillhead by-election in Glasgow for the Social Democratic Party, whose dream of an electoral breakthrough looks strong as they still head most of the opinion polls. 29 March – Royal assent in London to the Canada Act 1982 sets the stage for the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution.