2015 rolls into 2016

It's that time of year again when I have to review my predictions from the last year and make some new ones. So let's review the last year:

1. The economy will continue to recover, and will grow by 2.5% this year. Wages growth will really begin to outstrip inflation. 1 point
2. The General Election will be close, final tally Tories 36%, Labour 31%, Lib Dems 10%, UKIP 12%. 1 point (very close)
3. Tories and Lib Dems will form a second coalition. 0 points
4. Lewis Hamilton will win the F1 World Championship again. 1 point
5. Sebastien Vettel will not perform as well as Alonso at Ferrari, and Ferrari will end the year in greater turmoil with Raikkonen being sacked. 0 points
6. Labour will have a leadership election with Chukka Umuna winning. 1/4 points
7. Vince Cable will lose his seat in the election (hopefully) 1 point
8. UKIP will gain 2 seats at the General Election, but Rochester & Strood will not be one of them. Douglas Carswell will be re-elected. 1/2 point
9. Hilary Clinton, Jeb Bush and Rand Paul will all run for the US Presidential primaries. 1 point
10. Nick Clegg will resign the leadership of the Lib Dems. 1 point

Overall 6.75 points is not bad. I was caught out by Ferrari being a lot stronger than planned, and who could have predicted Jeremy Corbyn being elected as Labour leader?

Now for 2016.

1. Lewis Hamilton will win the F1 World Championship again.
2. Sebastien Vettel will be second in the F1 World Championship and will win more races.
3. Nico Rosberg will leave Mercedes at the end of the year, and Raikkonen will retire.
4. It will be Hilary Clinton vs Marco Rubio for the US presidency.
5. Marco Rubio will win the presidency.
6. The EU referendum will happen this year with Remain winning by roughly 58% to 42%
7. The Tories will beat Labour in the local elections by a small margin, with the Lib Dems coming back quite strongly in third.
8. There will be a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn's leadership
9. Douglas Carswell will leave UKIP and stay independent
10. At least 2 MPs will defect from Labour

Let's see how well we go this year.

Squiffy.