It’s been a year of momentous events and rapid change worldwide across the political, media and cultural divides.
Trump defying all odds, Syria delivering horror after horror and Brexit exposing deep fissures in not just the Conservative Party but the whole country… 2016 was the year the music died, with Bowie, Prince and Leonard Cohen departing us, although Ed Balls’ popularity was resurrected with a Gangnam Style salsa and a piano set ablaze.
We’ve seen corporate scandals with train strikes, doping investigations and Sir Philip Green becoming a national villain; sporting triumphs for Andy Murray and Team GB and the odd disaster, Iceland defeating us in the knock-out stage of the Euros, if it’s not too painful to recall.
2016, while it will become the trusted response to many a pub quiz chin scratcher, is hard to sum up. Luckily, we have asked five of Pagefield’s friends, who also happen to be some of Britain’s brightest commentators, to take up the challenge by answering five quick-fire questions on the year that was and what happens next. We will publish one each day.
So far we’ve had Phillip Collins, Jon Snow and Debbie Wosskow give their takes. Today it’s the turn of Simon Hamer, Business Editor at Radio 4 Today.
2016 in 5 words
Shock, stunned, surprise, startled, staggered
Biggest political surprise
Anyone who was in power in 2015 still is
PR win / PR flop
Hard to look beyond Trump /traditional political campaigns
Wild card prediction
We realise that not as much has changed as we all think
New Year resolution
Talk less, listen more
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