Unemployment has surged past 2 million, figures showed today, for the first time since 1997, the year when Tony Blair and Labour were swept to power on 1 May with a landslide majority of 179 seats. What else was happening that year?
The Press Association has put out a handy list, which we have adorned with web links:
• The average house price in the UK was £68,525 (the average now is around £196,000)
• A pint of bitter cost £1.63 (at the moment the average is more than £2.50 ... and the Campaign for Real Ale has warned a pint could cost £5 by the 2012 Olympics).
• The average cost of a litre of unleaded petrol was 62p (today it is 90.6p, according to PetrolPrices.com).
• There were 1.8 million students in higher education (it is now around 2,011,000, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa).
• Interest rates stood at 6.25% in May 1997 (today, rates are at a historic low of 0.5% to try to stimulate the economy out of recession).
• Diana, Princess of Wales died following a car crash in a Paris tunnel. Her funeral was watched by 32 million people.
• The best-selling record of the year was Elton John's re-recording of Candle in the Wind in tribute to Diana. It sold 4.8m copies in the UK, making it the biggest-selling single of all time.
• Titanic, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, was released. It would go on to win 11 Oscars including the Best Picture award. (Today, there are well-advanced plans for a Titanic Quarter in Belfast).
• Chelsea won the FA Cup, beating Middlesbrough 2-0. Roberto Di Matteo scored the first goal after only 43 seconds with a powerful long-range shot.
