2016 is over, here comes 2017

Every year I try to predict what will happen, I usually get around half of them right. I have a feeling that when I mark myself for 2016 I'll be lucky to get any predictions correct. What a year with so many surprises.

Ok, now to copy and paste last year's predictions, and see the marks:

1. Lewis Hamilton will win the F1 World Championship again. 0 points
2. Sebastien Vettel will be second in the F1 World Championship and will win more races. 0 points
3. Nico Rosberg will leave Mercedes at the end of the year, and Raikkonen will retire. 0.5 points, Rosberg did leave!
4. It will be Hilary Clinton vs Marco Rubio for the US presidency. 0.5 points, it was Hilary Clinton but I really though Trump would have been found out!
5. Marco Rubio will win the presidency. 0 points.
6. The EU referendum will happen this year with Remain winning by roughly 58% to 42%. 0 points, completely wrong.
7. The Tories will beat Labour in the local elections by a small margin, with the Lib Dems coming back quite strongly in third. 0.5 point, Lib Dems came bac strongly but Labout just pipped the Tories.
8. There will be a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. 1 point
9. Douglas Carswell will leave UKIP and stay independent. 0 points
10. At least 2 MPs will defect from Labour. 0 points

In total that makes 2.5 points which is pretty pathetic compared to last years' 6.75 points, but given the year we've had I'd take it!

Which makes me come to this year's predictions. Let's see how I fair this year.

1. Lewis Hamilton will regain the F1 World Championship
2. Daniel Ricciardo will be second in the F1 World Championship and it will get tense with Max Verstappen who'll come third.
3. Ferrari will fall further into disarray, with Vettel and Raikonnen leaving at the end of the year.
4. Francois Fillon will beat Marine Le Pen in the second round of the French Presidency, Emmanuel Macron will be pipped in the previous round.
5. Angela Merkel will remain German Chancellor
6. There will be another Eurozone crisis following Greece intransigence.
7. Article 50 will be triggered by the end of March as predicted by the Prime Minister
8. A rough outline of Brexit will be presented. Not a member of the Single Market, a free trade agreement on goods, no free movement of peoples and a sector-by-sector membership of the customs union (wheich we'll not get).
9. The parties will stay roughly where they are in the polls, Tories 40%, Labour 27%, Lib Dems 10%, UKIP 9%.
10. 2 more Labour MPs will either defect or resign.
11. In the Copeland By-Election Labour will narrowly beat the Tories, by less than 2000 votes. UKIP will be a distant third.

Squiffy.