So as the year of 2022 dies, and we await the birth of 2023, one of the last tasks of the year is to review my predictions, made on 1st January and give myself a mark out of 10 for my Mystic Meg capabilities.
I have taken my predictions made on 1st January and assessed ow accurate they are. Some of them are quite spookily accurate and some are hilariously wide of the mark.
My assessment of the predictions is in Red Italics
January.
We have new Brexit restrictions on trade coming in from today. The month will see headlines as the country adjusts and we see the full reality of the decision we made in the referendum. The headlines will not be kind to the Brexiteers. As to the other big news story, the pandemic. January will be a bumpy month, but Boris is set on the path of keeping Britain open. We will see the full impact of this, as trains are cancelled and shops shut as workers self isolate. We will see huge disagreements emerge between scientists and the government. By the end of the month, the wave will largely have blown through. Boris will claim that whatever path he chose was a success for him. None of us will believe him. We will see heavy snow falls around the 22nd of the month and London will grind to a halt. The headlines will be full of the beast from the East. The snow, Brexit and the pandemic will conspire to see shortages.
So, I was right about Boris keeping Britain open. Trains were cancelled, shops were shut, although not on the scale I predicted. Brexit has seen all manner of strange shortages through the year, sardines being a notable one. I got the weather wrong though 7/10
February.
The weather will be cold, the shelves will be sparsely stocked, but the mood will start to improve as the month carries on. We will see the politicing starting for the local elections. Boris will be a key target of the opposition parties. The Tories will be pushing the line that they've done the best of a bad job. In the wider world, we'll see more bad headlines for Joe Biden in the States. Vladimir Putin will be pushing his buttons in Ukraine and we'll see a very dangerous situation emerge.
This really was, sadly prophetic. Little did I realise that Putin would launch an invasion. The opposition parties started to ramp up pressure,aided by ever more scandals 9/10
March.
The pandemic headlines will have receded. The effects of Brexit will be a bigger story. All eyes will be on the situation in the Ukraine. We will have a harsh budget as the Chancellor seeks to repair the damage to the nations finances of pandemic. Interest rates will rise as shortages feed through to inflation.
Again this was spot on. All eyes were on Ukraine. We did start to see a massive surge in inflation. 9/10
April.
As the football season moves towards its crescendo, fans start to realise that there will be now world cup in the summer and the move to December will mean a very different season next year. With the new financial year, the effects of the tax increases, higher interest payments and higher energy prices driven by the situation in the Ukraine start to hit home. It becomes ever more clear that Boris Johnson is not a leader for such troubled times.
Again spot on. 9/10
May.
The Council elections deliver a huge blow to Boris Johnson. The Tories lose thousands of seats in all sorts of weird and wonderful places. It becomes clear that his MP's have lost confidence and a challenger throws down the guantlet. In a mean spirit and fractuous battle. Rishi sunak faces off against Liz Truss for the final round
This was quite accurate, apart from the timing. I hadn't realised that the Tories would take so long to screw up the pleadership election. Only the month was wrong 8/10
June.
We have a new Prime Minister. Liz Truss takes over, her first act is to demote the chancellor to the back benches, blaming him for the tax rises that cost the Tories the local elections. A round of musical chairs finishes that sees Sajid Javid back at the treasury. Boris announces that he's going to write a new book on how marvellous he is.
Once again, this was not too far of the mark, apart from the timing. If Liz Truss had listened and put Sajid Javed in the Treasury, maybe she'd still be there. He is at least a sensible grown up. 7/10
July.
It's summer. With no world cup, everyone can concentrate on how bad England are in the Cricket. A new covid variant is announced. It appears that this one evades the vaccine and is even more catchable than Omicron. Liz Truss announces that there will be no restrictions at this time
Thankfully, there was no major new wave that was worse than Omicron. These predictions were rubbish in that the T20 World cup wasn't even this month and England won! 1/10
August.
A heatwave hits London. Rails buckle and hosepipe bans are introduced. Liz Truss announces that there's no reason at this time to start worrying about the new variant, so long as we all have a booster. A hectic football programme is started, amongst much whinging from players and managers. The season is compressed due to the world cup.
After a lousy month in July, I was back in tip top form in August, the only ting I got wrong was that we still were waiting for Liz to take charge 9/10
September.
A mass booster programme is introduced. Truss tells us that if we don't have it and we get locked down it's all our fault. As we see higher numbers of injuries than ever, as semi fit players are playing every three days, the world of football erupts about the stupidity of a winter world cup.
We started a new booster programme and there were mumblings about the world cup. 7/10
October.
The first By Election since Liz Truss took over happens in a safe Tory seat. The Lib Dems overturn a 20,000 majority and Tories start to wonder if they really made the right decision.
There was no by election in October. There was no Liz Truss in number 10 by the middle of the month. I suppose I was right that the Tories were wondering if they made the right decision! 4/10
November
The World Cup starts. England do well in the group stages. Phil Foden, Mason Mount and Harry Kane fill their boots. The new vairant seems to be controlled by the vaccination programme. Anti vaxxiers claim it was "just a cold" as their numbers swell in hospital.
The World Cup started, England did well. Foden, Mount and Kane didn't shine though. The anti vaxxers claimed covid is justa cold! 8/10
December
England play Germany in the final. It goes to penalties. Raheem Stirling steps up for the the final one. Score and we are through. Lose and Germany write the same old book. I won't spoil the surprise for you. The Queen announces that this will be her final speech. She's had enough.
Given that neither England nor Germany made the finals, this was a rubbish prediction. The Queen clearly had had enough and didn't even make a speech as she'd shuffled off this mortal coil in October after shaking hands with Liz Truss. 2/1
So overall, that rounds up to 7/10 which is a very decent score. Stand by for next years predictions coming soon!
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