Throughout the year, a certain smooth and orderly transition was on everybody's lips. It never happened.
But while Blair clung on and Gordon quasi-couped, change happened all over the place: the ice caps melted, Jamie Oliver suffered a backlash, George Bush saw his power pruned and George Galloway turned into a "pussy cat".
Find the answers to the questions set by our writers that reveal how in 2006 we turned to face the strain . . .
Politics
Martin Bright
1. Who admitted his "political antennae" failed to see the cash-for-honours crisis coming?
a) Lord Cashpoint, Michael Levy
b) Lord Cashtill, David Sainsbury
c) Geoff Hoon
d) Lord Copper
2. Which constituency is represented by Angus MacNeil, the Scottish Nationalist MP who reported Tony Blair to the police for the alleged sale of peerages?
a) Western Isles
b) Na h-Eileanan an Iar
c) Ross, Skye and Lochaber
d) Dun Eideann and Glaschu
3. Which demoted secretary of state insisted on having a name plate made with the words "Attending Cabinet" under the new job title, when taking up a more junior post?
a) Jack Straw
b) Ruth Kelly
c) Charles Clarke
d) Geoff Hoon
4. Which of the following phrases has not been used by his Labour colleagues to describe Gordon Brown?
a) Psychologically flawed
b) Absolutely stupid
c) Autistic
d) Outstanding
5. How many Old Etonians are serving in David Cameron's front-bench team?
a) 1
b) 15
c) 4
d) 25
In the news
Nadia Saint and Preeti Jha
1. Jamie Oliver tried to change the dietary habits of a nation, but didn't see the rebellion coming. What did two mothers try to push through the school fence to their children in Rotherham, in protest at the healthy school dinner campaign?
a) Alternative recipes b) Junk food
c) Fruit salad d) Delia Smith
2. Next year brings the smoking ban, but it has its detractors, including David Hockney. In his diatribe against Gordon Brown, the artist insulted him by calling him which of the following:
a) A prig P.R.I.G.
b) A dreary atheistic Calvinistic prig
c) A priggish bore d) Tony Blair
3. Methane is 23 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. What is the UK's single biggest source of the gas?
a) Landfill sites
b) Cow burps
c) Coal mines
d) Human flatulence
4. The government predicted that the take-up for gay and lesbian civil partnerships would be 22,000 by 2010. How many were recorded in the UK in this, the first year?
a) 23,672 b) 12,672 c) 15,672
d) 11,000 gay and 11,001 lesbian
5. What did Pope Benedict XVI describe as a "very difficult and delicate subject which warrants prudence"?
a) Making pronouncements on any aspect of the Koran as a non-Muslim
b) The possibility of condoms being allowed by the Catholic Church
c) The response to Iran's nuclear ambitions
d) Making the Popemobile carbon-neutral
Online and technology
Becky Hogge
1. How much money changed hands when Google bought YouTube in October this year?
a) $0
b) $1.65m
c) $1.65bn
d) Search me
2. Which online political document was briefly changed to read: "We believe that the environmental problems we face, like sharks (which are largely caused by incompetent governments in backward, hegemonic countries), represent the gravest threat to human life and prosperity . . ."?
a) Ukip manifesto
b) EU constitution
c) The al-Qaeda handbook PDF
d) Defra environmental contract
3. In November this year, the information commissioner, Richard Thomas, warned that Britain had turned into "a surveillance society". What is the ratio of CCTV cameras to people in the UK?
a) One camera for every 140 people
b) One camera for every 14 people
c) 14 cameras for every person
d) One camera each
4. Which UK cabinet minister reacted to technological change on the Today programme with the words: "I think it's called the internet or something - blogs, is it? - I don't know, I've only just got used to letters"?
a) Tessa Jowell
b) John Prescott
c) David Miliband
d) John Reid
5. Which of the following is returned first in a Google search for "Geoffrey Robinson"?
a) Geoffrey Robinson Ltd, plumbing and electrics since 1971
b) Geoffrey Robinson, professor of mathematics, University of Aberdeen
c) Geoffrey Robinson MP, proprietor, New Statesman
d) Geoffrey Robinson, "inventive image-maker"
Books
Rachel Aspden
1. Fans of which revered author were outraged when her books were "sexed up" with a Devil-Wears-Prada-style make-over?
a) Jane Austen
b) Virginia Woolf
c) Sappho
d) Lauren Weisberger
2. What were the Whitbread Book Awards rechristened in 2006?
a) The Woolworths Book Awards
b) The Costa Book Awards
c) The Burger King Book Awards
d) Guinness First Draught Award
3. Which controversial author said: "So let the haters hate, let the doubters doubt, I stand by my book, and my life"?
a) Ian McEwan
b) James Frey
c) Chantelle
d) Salman Rushdie
4. Which biographer was denounced as "a shit" in a forged acrostic letter accidentally published in a new life of John Betjeman?
a) Claire Tomalin
b) A N Wilson
c) Bevis Hillier
d) Wayne Rooney
5. Who created the beautiful Ruperta Chirpingdon-Groin, literary femme fatale of 2006?
a) D B C Pierre
b) Martin Amis
c) Thomas Pynchon
d) Pete Doherty
International affairs
John Kampfner
1. Who of the following has yet to admit Iraq was a disaster?
a) Tony Blair
b) Robert Gates
c) George W Bush
d) Nick Cohen
2. What do Britain and North Korea have in common?
a) A new nuclear weapons system
b) A leader with a cult of personality
c) Clean streets
d) Bad cricket teams
3. Which world leader may now escape trial?
a) Augusto Pinochet
b) Silvio Berlusconi
c) Robert Mugabe
d) Tony Blair
4. Which of the following is Putin not responsible for this year?
a) Radioactive poisoning
b) Clamping down on dissidents
c) Regarding rape as a joke
d) Making Gus Hiddink Russian football coach
5. Which item of clothing would Jack Straw be least comfortable in?
a) A bikini
b) A suit
c) A Blackburn Rovers shirt
d) The niqab
Television
Andrew Billen
1. What did Jeremy Paxman call a "stupid idea" on air?
a) His editor's "pathetic pleas" for viewers' home movies that would, in his opinion, turn Newsnight into the BBC's version of Animals Do the Funniest Things
b) David Frost fronting al-Jazeera in the UK
c) Michael Grade's defection to ITV
d) Michael Grade's memo that insisted Paxman have a Martha Kearney make-over if he wanted to keep his job
2. What was the occupation of the Celebrity Big Brother winner Chantelle Houghton on entering the house?
a) Adviser for Bethnal Green's MP
b) Member of the Welsh rap group Goldie Lookin' Chain
c) Paris Hilton lookalike
d) Media studies student at Preston University
Bonus Question: How did her co-star George Galloway MP entertain viewers?
a) By calling Preston a "plutocrat"
b) By pretending to be a cream-licking "pussy cat"
c) By dressing up in a pink leotard
d) All of the above
3. Which soap won the Mental Health Media Award 2006?
a) Hollyoaks
b) Coronation Street
c) EastEnders
d) Brookside
4. In a recent poll of Doctor Who enthusiasts, who was voted the best Doctor ever?
a) Tom Baker
b) David Tennant
c) Jon Pertwee
d) John Reid
Arts
Henrietta Clancy
1. The Royal Ballet made a bid for hipness by changing from classical music to rock'n'roll. Which band featured in its recent triple-bill show?
a) White Stripes
b) The Killers
c) The Strokes
d) Chas'n'Dave
2. Tate Modern's turbine hall was transformed by a series of giant slides. What is the nationality of the artist responsible for this "playground for the body and the brain"?
a) Belgian b) German
c) Danish d) Swiss
3. How will the Turner Prize be transformed in 2007?
a) It will be restricted to those working in traditional media
b) The age limit of entrants will be raised from 50 to 60
c) The awards ceremony will take place outside London
d) It will be judged by people on the internet
4. The much-anticipated Dirty Dancing hit the West End this year. Which of the following is the only correct line from the production?
a) Baby, go and play in your pen
b) I carried a watermelon
c) I just love, baby, your pinkish iridescent lipstick
d) Baby, no one puts you in the corner whatever your age
5. Art prices soared in 2006. How much did David Geffen's Jackson Pollock painting change hands for?
a) $7.35m
b) $63.35m
c) $140m
d) It was a swap with Charles Saatchi for Damien Hirst's Shark
Fashion and style
Annalisa Barbieri
1. What is the must-have bag of the moment?
a) The Mulberry "Bush"
b) The YSL "Anais"
c) The Onya
d) Sainsbury's carrier bag
2. If someone offered to "Yuko" you, would you:
a) Pull your trousers down
b) Duck
c) Get out your wallet
d) Sit down and shake your head?
3. What's a muffin-top?
a) The top of an over-inflated cake
b) Fallout from a nuclear explosion
c) The spillage of fat from atop trouser waistbands
d) A lace-up mule
4. What is teal?
a) A cross between a calf and turkey
b) This winter's must-have colour
c) The winner of I'm a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!
d) What you say when you stumble on a great designer bargain
Climate change
Mark Lynas
1. How many Downing Street light bulbs must Tony Blair change over to low-energy bulbs in order to "offset" his summer holiday in Barbados?
a) 20 b) 50 c) 100 d) 200
2. A Tory aristocrat changed the laws of atmospheric physics (hence "disproving" global warming) with a laughable back-of-the-envelope calculation published over two weeks in the Sunday Telegraph. Who was he?
a) Viscount Monckton of Brenchley
b) Lord Lawson of Blaby (formerly Nigel Lawson)
c) Norman, now Lord, Tebbit
d) Zac Goldsmith
3. According to a scientific paper published in September, how much of the Arctic's "permanent" sea ice disappeared in the space of a single season, between 2004 and 2005?
a) A tenth
b) An eighth
c) A sixth
d) A quarter
4. The amount of money allocated by the Chancellor in his "green Budget" of 2006 to promote energy efficiency (£20m) represents how many days of spending on
the Iraq war?
a) Four days
b) Two weeks
c) Two months
d) Six months
5. According to Nasa's top climate scientist, Jim Hansen, the earth is now within a degree of changing its temperature to be warmer than it has been for:
a) A thousand years
b) Ten thousand years
c) A hundred thousand years
d) A million years
Media
Peter Wilby
1. Which editor was sacked despite producing "something lovely"?
a) Sarah Sands
b) Roger Alton
c) That Danish chappie
d) Boris Johnson
2. Who tried to persuade PRs and journalists to change their ways and make friends?
a) Alastair Campbell
b) Amanda Platell
c) Richard Littlejohn
d) Julia Hobsbawm
3. Which publication went surprisingly green?
a) Nuts
b) The Sunday Express
c) The Financial Times
d) The Sun
4. Who changed Fleet Street practice by abolishing sub-editors?
a) The Daily Telegraph
b) Private Eye
c) The News of the World
d) The Guardian
5. Which Irishman, to the horror of journalists, kept taking over newspapers?
a) Bono
b) Tony O'Reilly
c) David Montgomery
d) Ian Paisley
Sport
Emma John
1. Why did Luiz Felipe Scolari turn down the England manager's job?
a) Too little money
b) Too much media intrusion
c) Too little English talent
d) Too many Wags
2. In what did Shelley Rudman win Britain's only medal at the Winter Olympics?
a) The luge
b) The skeleton
c) The halfpipe
d) The pipe and slippers
3. After his triumphant comeback from a drugs ban, at Gothenburg, Dwain Chambers turned his hand to:
a) Chess
b) Basketball
c) American football
d) Pharmaceutical sales
4. Who asked for a million dollars to resign quietly from his position?
a) Sven-Göran Eriksson
b) Darrell Hair
c) Andy Robinson
d) Goleo VI, the World Cup mascot
5. Why did Kimi Raikkonen miss Michael Schumacher's farewell presentation at the end of the Formula One season?
a) He couldn't undo his seat belt
b) He couldn't get out of his trailer
c) He wanted to protest against the environmental impact of motor racing
d) He was on the toilet
Read the answers to the NS Christmas Quiz here
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