The end of the year is nigh.

You've all heard the cliché "A week in politics is a long time", well a year must seem like an absolute age. With this year that statement seemingly more poetic than previous. This year has been a big year for me, and not just in politics, so writing this post is proving to be a useful test of the memory banks.

The year for me with a mix of known knowns, hopes, and outside bets. We all knew that we would see a new prime minister, I hope that the tories could start to be take things seriously and look like a government in waiting, and I really could not see how Sir Ming could complete the year as leader of the Lib Dems. All of this seems to have happen.

However, what I do find astounding is that government have finished the year in exactly the same position as they started it. I thought that after the cash for honours investigation that that surely couldn't be stupid enough to put themselves back in to that poisition. As it turns out, I was wrong, they are indeed under investigation again thanks to "alleged" dodgy fund raising activities. It becomes even more incredulous when you consider that they created the laws they are currently being investigated for breaching.

In the run up to Blair's final months he was surrounded by ministers that just couldn't do the job. I think he knew this all too well, which I why he looked relieved when he left office, with the potential time bomb ticking in Downing Street. The calamity that is the Home Office was ready to hit the buffers, the economy was showing signs of strain, and the housing market boom was no longer sustainable. He got out at the right time, and who could blame him.

So arise Sir Clunking fist. His first task was to fill a cabinet with many of the same ministers that Blair could sense just wanted power, and not him at them helm, but really weren't any good. But he left Gordon with a red carpet in the opinion polls, a one way ticket back into Downing street, of which Gordon has successfully ripped up, thrown out, and potentially blown any chance of winning an election. He showed weakness by calling off an election that he had hyped up, and by failing to sack failing ministers, he has shown that he is not up to the job of leading this country. Even some Labour grassroots members are wondering what on earth they were thinking.

So Cameron is rampant in the polls, and about time bloody too in my opinion. However, there is still so much for him to do. I stil hear "urgh your a tory" when talking to even my friends, and that has to change if he is to win the next election, he can't just rely on Gordon failing all the time.

As for the Lib Dems, I couldn't see how Ming could last the year, he didn't, and I fear that unless Nick Clegg has some quick successes, and improve the party's fortunes over the next year he may well be stabbed in the back aswell.

For me 2007 has been a really busy year. Firsty the trials and tribulations of supporting Charlton, which in the end saw us being relegated from the Premiership still continue, and it is still just as tressful to watch them in the Championship. The Centenary of Scouting has been a massive programme of activities for our youth membership, and has seen a sea change in perception. Now when I say that I am a scout leader, I hear "well done, good on you" instead of the old dib dib shit, and innuendo that i've had to put up with over the years. Plus to be standing in a field with 40,000 other scouts from almost every nation on the planet, something the UN is jealous of, renewing my scout promise alongside every single one of them will stay with me for a long long time to come.

Blogging this year though has been a mixed bag. In my eagerness to try and focus my posts between national and local politics I started a new blog in the summer, which not only completely failed, but I also managed to piss off one regular reader when I started moving links around, and made a complete hash of the whole thing. The whole project was a mistake, and I bit the bullet held up my hand, and returned to my old tried and tested format, which seems to work. I will most likely be proved wrong now.

So what now for 2008? Well I think my 8 for 2008 will be a good bet. I honestly can't see Gordon Brown recovering from the complete cock ups of November, unless the tories decide to press the self destruct button, and for the good of the nation I sincerely hope they don't.

Here's wishing every single one of you a happy and healthy New Year. God bless you.