The digested year: Goats, squirrels and Schrödinger’s PM

Chaotic 2022 supplied us with resignations and U-turns aplenty, as well as the remarkable Hancock prophecies

Well. 2022 wasn't exactly what we needed after nearly two years of intermittent lockdowns and continuing health anxieties during the Covid pandemic. What we could have done with was something soothing. Something calming, to give us all time to ease back into our normal lives. Last December I wrote my predictions for the coming year. I suggested that Boris Johnson would be kicked out of No 10 by the early summer and that Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss would emerge as the two frontrunners to become prime minister. I even said that Truss would go on to win as the Tory party were hellbent on proving they had a sense of humour. Satire rewriting itself as history.

Only I was far too cautious. I never dreamed that Truss would only last a few weeks and that the man the party didn't want would become the MPs' new champion. Or that the economy would be the second worst performing in the G20. Or that British politics would reveal itself to be terminally dysfunctional. So this year I am going to skip the predictions. Safe in the knowledge that 2023 will almost certainly be far, far worse than anything you can imagine. Instead, let's reflect back on the past 12 months.