At this point, we traditionally sing the praises of Steve Richards on The Sunday Programme, who is the only person to not only review his predictions, but to play them back to the same panellists. Or, to be exact, he was the only person to do that, The Sunday Programme having been cancelled - along with all the rest of ITV's networked political programmes - in the summer.

Notwithstanding that loss, we're going to continue the practice. These were our predictions, here are the markings.

1. Domestic politics. None of the three main parties will change their national leaders this year. Good start.
2. That said, we can see pressure on Froglet and Wendy Alexander to go. They won't. No particular pressure on Froglet to resign; and Wendy did go following criticism of her personal conduct.
3. The London mayoral election will be close, less than 5% between the two candidates following the second preference count. We'd put a small stake at large odds on the winner of the first ballot not winning after transfers. Bozza won, and he won with a surprisingly large majority.
4. The London Assembly is more simple, Conservatives still the largest single party without an overall majority, and they'll have at least one Overhang seat. The BNP will take one seat. We were wrong with the Overhangmandate, but right in all other particulars.
5. There's not too much left for Labour to lose at the local elections; they're defending seats won in 2004, when the party was at its lowest ebb, apart from councils along the M6. Stoke is the one to watch; as the Potteries go, so goes the party. We're not at all sure how things will go in the Welsh locals. (Is there a prediction in there? Ah, yes.) Labour lost control of Stoke council, and other totemic councils down the M6.
6. Detention without trial for 42 days will not pass into law. Withdrawn somewhere around Lords'.
7. The Lisbon Treaty will pass, and without a referendum in the UK. Well, the UK has presented her instrument of ratification, but the Irish didn't.
8. The identity register will become an obvious dead duck, but Labour will still be too stubborn to cancel it. Correct. We can see that this boondoggle is an article of faith for Labour, and they won't cancel it under any circumstance.
9. There will be growing resentment over the increasingly rubbish state of the Royal Mail, and a clamour to reverse the market liberalisations of the past few years. These will come to naught. We're surprised that this is wrong.
10. Economics. We're more pessimistic than most commentators. The UK economy will grow this year, but by less than 1%, and there will be at least one quarter where the economy is either in recession, or the signal is less than the statistical noise. We'll call this a pass: net growth for 2008 looks set to be about 0.2%, and the third quarter was clearly negative.
11. Northern Rock will be taken into public ownership. It was, eventually. What we didn't see coming was the September Fuckup, allowing Lehman Brothers to go bankrupt and cause the financial markets to ice over faster than a bowl of shaving water at the south pole.
12. UK consumer inflation will remain at around 3½%; this will be seen as a price worth paying for the growth record. Inflation peaked at 5% in the year to July, and should end the year at around 3%. The worry, of course, is deflation caused by the September Fuckup.
13. Exchange rate to watch is the euro to the dollar: the current figure is USD 1.46 ≈ €1. This will go higher as the euro becomes a second reserve currency. The rate crept up during the first half of the year, spending July testing the 1.60 barrier. The rate plunged during August, and again in October, briefly breaking 1.20, as nervy investors put their money back in the dollar. The final score is 1.40, and we're claiming a partial success.
14. That fact will depress the pound; it'll close the year slightly above USD2, but well below the long-term peg of €1.40. There will be increasingly audible calls for the UK to set a timetable to hitch itself to the winning single currency; it won't be adopted by Labour or the Conservatives. The plunge from 2.00 at the start of August to a low of 1.45 in November reflected structural weaknesses in the UK, and the sudden shift in the Bank of England's interest rate policies from hawk to dove. Against the euro, the pound spent most of the year between 1.25-1.30, before plunging in the last two months to end the year at 1.04. There are calls from previously sceptical people to join the euro, even though policies outlined by the UK government make that impossible for a few years. We're calling this a partial success.
15. There will be increasing concern at foreign ownership of essential companies. The UK can't stop France from buying up her water companies, but will raise concern against the Russians and Chinese doing the same. Other dogs attracted attention.
16. International affairs. No significant progress in the Palestine problem. Indeed.
17. Pakistan will totter, but stop short of civil war. Nothing became Mr. Musharraf so much as his dignified (if rambling) resignation speech in August.
18. Iraq will move towards a Belgium-style looser federation, with the various ethnic groups taking their own part of the country. This will be very unpopular with the occupying forces, but they will not stop the progress. Undecided: the western media has focussed solely on the role of the occupying forces.
19. Red China will be roundly criticised over its human rights policies, and will quietly crack down on dissidents before the Crass Spectacle. This will be glossed over by the rest of the media, and no politician will mention Tibet. We hate to be right.
20. Serbia will grudgingly allow Kosova to declare her independence, playing a tough line in negotiations. Kosova declared her independence, Serbia and many other countries have refused to recognise it, but there has been no new military or economic sanction. More right than wrong.
21. Belgium will hold a further general election to preserve the country's unity, at which there will be explicit links between Flemish and French-speaking parties. It's not clear whether the country will split. A caretaker government was in place for most of the year, but the fault lines haven't been addressed.
22. Entertainment. Physical singles are as good as dead already, and will be phased out of most non-specialist stores during 2008; only HMV and independent retailers will stock them. Physical albums will still be the vast majority of that market. Yep.
23. Pop bands will not learn from the failure of No Angels and the Spice Girls, and still reform, because touring is an easy way to make a quick buck. Even My Bloody Valentine reunited.
24. Fru Hazlitt is the new manager for the merged GWR / Capital group, and has tough decisions to make; predecessor Ralph Bernard has left the company in a parlous state. We can see an increased level of localness, stations being allowed to decide what order to play their records, but no significant reduction in networked hours. Her major changes won't take effect until 2009. Hazlitt was ousted in the spring, and the new owners will turn their network of local stations into one national local Radio Active. Miss.
25. DAB: We expect at least one (quite possibly both) of Core and Life to close, to be replaced by very similar stations from other operators. Oneword is almost certain to close by the end of January; we don't know what will take its place. Channel 4's multiplex will launch in June, but the most interesting stations - Channel 4 Radio and Pure4 - don't start until 2009. Miss, slightly harshly. Core, Life, Oneword have closed, Channel 4 went off air before it went on air, and there's been no replacement service.
26. No major changes at BBC radio; it's too soon to reverse the errors on Radio 2's evenings, Radio 3's attitude can only change with the controller, and neither 1 nor 4 need the change. Wouldn't be surprised to hear that Wogan's leaving Radio 2 breakfast, or that Moyles will leave Radio 1; by the end of this year, Moyles will have overtaken Edmonds, and be only months behind Mayo and Read. Mostly a hit; Radio 2's controller left following pressure from vested outside interests. Wogan and Moyles remain in post for 2009 with no public succession plan.
27. Television: ITV won't be prosecuted over its 0898gate fraud. Nor will the BBC abolish its fatuous credit squeeze, not that we'll stop complaining about it. It's too early for Channel 4 to cut its ties to Endemol, though we may hear during 2008 that Deal or No Deal is to be closed. Hit: no prosecution for ITV, the BBC revised its credit crunch but still makes them unreadable, and there was less Endemol on 4 than before.
28. After News Corporation is forced to sell its blocking stake, ITV will be involved in a takeover bid by or for a European broadcaster. News Corporation is playing dirty, again, and fighting to retain its blocking stake. Not enough evidence to call.
29. Sport. The Euro '08 final will be a repeat of a group game. Miss, and the first miss of the year, because this was not possible.
30. Bayern München to beat Rangers en route to the UEFA Cup; Inter Milan will win the European League. No; Bayern and Rangers both fell to Zenit, and Internazionale lost in the round of 16.
31. Other stuff. William and Kate will announce their engagement this year, but don't buy your hats on their behalf until 2009. No public declaration has yet been made.
32. There will be plans for a national railcard: pay £35 per year, get a third off all off-peak trips costing more than a fiver. It won't be sold, perhaps until the start of 2010, but will be announced. No.
33. Madeleine McCann will not be found, dead or alive, thus giving the Di-ly Express something to go on about after the inquest returns an accidental death verdict. Double hit, though the Express has been quiet following a remarkable apology.
34. Liverpool's year as City of Culture will be a tremendous flop, making Glasgow 1990 look like a rip-roaring success. We're calling this a hit.
35. And finally: JKR O'ling announces that she will be filling the story of What Harry Potter Did Before the Epilogue, to publish circa 2010. No.

The scores on the doors: 18 predictions were wholly or mostly correct, 11 were mostly or entirely wrong, and the remaining six were partially correct or look set to be resolved in the new year.

Predictions for 2009

1. Economics The UK will suffer a sharp recession, contracting by more than 2½% from 2008Q3 to 2009Q3. No other G7 economy will contract by more.
2. The Liberal Democrats will propose further reforms of the financial markets, including police investigations, a tougher regulatory regime, and root-and-branch reform. These will be pooh-poohed for some months, then adopted as policy by at least one other major party.
3. The pound reaches lows of about €0.93 and USD 1.30 before recovering to end the year slightly higher than €1.05 and USD 1.45. The currency in particular trouble will be the rouble, currently 42 to the euro; we can see this reaching 60 by the end of 2009.
4. Oil will briefly go below USD 30 per barrel, but rally to finish the year at about USD 60.
5. UK consumer inflation will fall below 1% for the year to July, but will rise slightly towards the end of the year. This won't be particular evidence of recovery, but of this year's falls in oil working through.
6. UK politics Non-prediction alert! We're not going to predict whether there will be a general election in the UK during 2009. We believe The Soup Dragon is not a coward but a cold calculator, and won't risk letting the opposition in with a large majority when he could keep them to a fragile margin. (We'll be discussing this further next week.)
7. The European Parliament elections are fixed for 4 June. As the UIP vote collapses from its 2004 high, the BNP will win two seats, a fact that attracts far more press coverage than the Greens' gains. The Conservatives will also make large gains, the Lib Dems may find a greater share of the vote doesn't translate into more seats, while Labour will struggle to retain its representation.
8. European politics Declan Ganley's Libertas group says it will field candidates across the EU in the parliamentary elections. It will gain some traction in Ireland, but will struggle to win more than one seat. Libertas may do better if it can persuade Eurosceptics elsewhere to join them (Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden already have sympathetic MEPs).
9. Ireland's government has said it will take the Lisbon Treaty back to the people to gain approval in a referendum. This campaign will be bitter and divisive; we do not care to call the result.
10. Germany also votes in 2009; the Grand Coalition will not be renewed.
11. Overseas affairs Canada's continuing constitutional crisis will reach the surprise conclusion in late January, when Mr. Harpie's CRAP government remains in office after presenting its budget.
12. It's election year in South Africa, and we expect the ANC to face serious opposition, sufficient to prevent it from re-writing the constitiution.
13. If Mr. Obama is allowed to take and hold office, his first year will end with a sense of disappointment, that the change he promised has yet to arrive.
14. Media Channel 4 announces that it won't be renewing Big Brother once the current contract ends in 2010.
15. The BBC announces plans to extend the airtime of BBC Switch, allowing it to occupy the CBBC and BBC3 frequencies for a few hours a night. The service will include the first airing of a revived Top of the Pops.
16. There's a new controller at Radio 2, slowly steering the station away from its reliance on Noel Gay clients and putting music before personality. The effects, and at least one big-name signing from the independent sector, won't fully bed in until 2010.
17. Digital albums will take off during 2009, receiving 25% of the market by the end of the year.
18. Though DAB needs new broadcasters, and needs them quickly, it won't get anywhere during 2009, and sales of sets will fall against 2008.
19. At least one national newspaper will close; The People appears most at risk. Scotland may also lose one of her national papers.
20. Sport The Ashes series won't quite reach the stunning heights of the 2005 matches, and will end drawn.
21. Hoffenheim won't win the 1. Bundesliga, but will finish in a European spot. They will still be in a European contest at this time next year.
22. Ole Einar Bjoerndalen will finally relinquish his biathlon World Cup crown.
23. Miscellany Political pressure will force many train operators to offer a service on Boxing Day, primarily in and around the major urban areas, but also some inter-city services. Where engineering works allow it to run, the service will be surprisingly well-patronised. The operators will resist pressure to run on christmas day, suggesting that they could see how the Boxing Day experiment goes.
24. Though nothing concrete will be announced, the government will be far more receptive to the idea of a high-speed rail line from London to northern England.

Prediction is a mug's game, and we'll be reviewing these two-dozen in the early days of 2010.

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