2017 is over. Here comes 2018

It's the end of another year, and as is now tradition I mark my predictions and make some new ones. In what is becoming a more unpredictable world, this is getting increasingly difficult!

So here's goes my pitiful efforts from last year.

1. Lewis Hamilton will regain the F1 World Championship    1 points.
2. Daniel Ricciardo will be second in the F1 World Championship and it will get tense with Max Verstappen who'll come third.    0 points.
3. Ferrari will fall further into disarray, with Vettel and Raikonnen leaving at the end of the year.    0 points.
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.     0 points.
5. Angela Merkel will remain German Chancellor.      1 points.
6. There will be another Eurozone crisis following Greece intransigence.      0 points.
7. Article 50 will be triggered by the end of March as predicted by the Prime Minister       1 points.
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).     1 point.
9. The parties will stay roughly where they are in the polls, Tories 40%, Labour 27%, Lib Dems 10%, UKIP 9%.      0 points.
10. 2 more Labour MPs will either defect or resign.      0 points.
11. In the Copeland By-Election Labour will narrowly beat the Tories, by less than 2000 votes. UKIP will be a distant third.      0 points.

I make that 4 points out of 10 which isn't very good. No one would have predicted a General Election last year along with the crumbling of the Theresa May's reputation and Jeremy Corbyn's revival. I did get the winner of the F1 World Championship but not the other places. Anyway, I'll make some more predictions for 2018...

1. Lewis Hamilton will win the World Championship for a fifth time.
2. Max Verstappen will be 2nd in the World Championship, with Red Bull beating Ferrari to 2nd in the constuctor's Championship.
3. There will be disarray in Ferrari this year as their car is not as successful as the 2017 version.
4. There will not be a General Election in the UK in 2018.
5. There will be a quick agreement on a a Brexit transition deal and a final deal will be ready in October.
6. It will be a very difficult process and possible constitutional crisis trying to get the EU Withdrawal through the House Of Lords.
7. The Labour Party will have a little crisis over their position on Brexit with some resignations, and Corbyn will end the year less popular.
8. At the end of the year the Tories will still be at 41%, Labour at 37%, Lib Dems 10%, UKIP 3%.
9. UKIP will file for bankruptcy.
10. Moves to impeach Donald Trump will fail.

Here's to another year.

Squiffy.