Preview of the Year 2019

Britain’s shifting political landscape is such that anything could happen in the year ahead

Events are increasingly hard to predict, but John Rentoul gives it a shot anyway

Tuesday 08 January 2019 12:17 GMT
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Theresa May will continue to believe that ‘nothing has changed’ – that much is easy to predict
Theresa May will continue to believe that ‘nothing has changed’ – that much is easy to predict

My late colleague Alan Watkins used to write an end-of-year column, adorned with an etching of him in an 18th-century wig, which he called his Almanack of predictions for the coming year. These were masterpieces of wit in mock-Swiftian style, all antique spellings and Occafionall capital letters.

In his last Almanack in 2006, Watkins claimed that most of the predictions he had made the previous year “hath infallibly come to pass, viz. ... that in the Month of August Master Anth. Blair, that (under God) is at the Head of Affairs, will make a Journey of the utmost Splendour and Magnificence, accompanied by a Retinue worthy of the Queen of Sheba herself, as is related in the ancient Documents...” and so on. He had predicted no such thing, of course, but no one was going to go back and check.

I cannot imitate the wonderful style, but any fool can make predictions and hope that, by this time next year, other people will have more important things to do than dredge up old articles to try to score petty points. So here goes.

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