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  1. Politics
5 January 2009

Bloggers on 2009

The best of the predictions for the new year - Paul Evans trawls the blogosphere on your behalf

By Paul Evans

The guessing game

As the inebriated revellers and pools of vodka mudshake were swept from the gutters, bloggers were pre-occupied by their crystal balls. Welcoming in 2009, online commentators bravely reeled off predictions for the coming political year.

Dizzy’s list is particularly worth a read. He foresees that the Conservatives will adopt a more radical tax-cutting agenda and that there will be minor upturn in UKIP’s fortunes. Perhaps less controversially, he ventures that:

“Blogging about politics will continue to be popular but political parties will continue to fail to grasp the Internet because they’ll carry on looking at America as a model.”

The New Statesman’s own James Macintyre agrees with Dizzy, albeit from a rather different perspective, on the likely direction of Conservative policy in the coming year.

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“Abandoning the ideological commitment to tax cuts remains Cameron’s best hope for a Clause Four moment, but he will retreat into tax and spending cuts and neo-Thatcher monetarism,” he wrote.

Perhaps blogfather Iain Dale’s boldest prediction (along with the impending demise of the Indy) is that the Tories will ape Labour in beefing up their front bench with the return of what we are now obliged to call “big beasts”. Like James Macintyre he points specifically to Ken Clarke.

You needn’t be engaged to Shelly von Strunckel to predict that Luke Akehurst’s offerings would include a substantial number of impending Labour victories, including a successful general election for the government.

Across the Irish Sea Killian Forde reckons we can expect Fianna Fail to lose their Dublin Euro seat – and that unemployment will climb to 12 per cent. Closer to home, ThunderDragon makes wishes rather than predictions. Wish eight is:

“For all members of the shadow cabinet to do their job full time”.

While rejecting the occultish games of other bloggers, the author of Sadie’s Tavern has made some resolutions; among them, to “stop buying the Spectator. Filthy habit and not worth the money now Fraser Nelson’s gone native.”

Not a sentiment this blog could endorse.

Around the World

Sad news from Johannesburg, as the death of the extraordinary Helen Suzman is announced. For decades she was a lone beacon of liberalism and anti-Apartheid conviction in the South African parliament. Sara Bedford remembered Suzman as a figure who had helped her form her own political consciousness, recalling:

“She was intelligent and courageous and never backed down, despite insults and hatred of those who ran the country”.

Tshepo Masethe praised her “big heart,” and wrote of both Suzman and the recently departed Nthato Motlana:

“We can’t ask any more from them. As this generation, we are now on our own and we should emulate and even surpass their leadership and ethical standards.”

Video of the Week

Check out this footage of a rather spooky projection of Boris Johnson delivering his new year message to Londoners, in which he quotes Lt Col. Kilgore of Apocalypse Now and advises that we must help the poor.

Quote of the Week

“To me it is simply another day, not a special day, just another day, like 23rd June becoming 24th June. In many ways too, welcoming in a new year which according to experts, is likely to be the very worst for the economy, crime, unemployment and generally will be an all round rotten year.”

Nich Starling, misery guts.

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Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
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