Our picks of the year (I)

Newspapers and blogs are full of reviews of the year at the moment. We'll be posting our own political highlights over the next couple of days, starting with these three...

Video of the year

Tim - I've cheated in this category and chosen two winners and both really are picks of the year.   Viral videos will be big at the next election and not for the squeamish but Guido Fawkes' video of Gordon Brown appearing to repeatedly pick his nose while sitting next to Tony Blair at Prime Minister's Question Time has been watched hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube.  The Australians also proved that politicians can never hide from their on-camera past. This vintage footage of Kevin Rudd eating his ear wax during a parliamentary debate was one of the most watched videos of the downunder election.  Unfortunately it wasn't enough to stop Labor's Rudd from ousting John Howard.

Samuel - A World Without America was the most successful viral video we made when based at 18 Doughty Street at the start of the year. It showed a British newsreader reporting on various crises that wouldn't have happened in a hypothetical world in which America didn't exist. It sparked both delight and hostility in the US, with it being played on national news networks and talk radio shows and attracting 12000 (and counting!) comments on YouTube. A great example of how the internet enables you to get a message out relatively cheaply - in this case, that it's easy to take America for granted.

Moment of the year

Tim - This has been the most extraordinary political year and we are spoilt for choice in this category.  Sam chose first and I probably would agree that 'Bottler Saturday' was the decisive political moment of the year. Avoiding being an echo, however, I'll choose the moment when Alistair Darling announced that the personal data of half the population had been lost by HMRC.  I choose that moment not because it was the worst deed of this Government but because incompetence is its hallmark.  The NHS computer fiasco, the release of foreign prisoners, the overpayment of tax credits, the run on Northern Rock, the mishandling of Foot and Mouth... This Government really would struggle to run a bath.  Although Labour is deservedly seen as being at least as sleazy as the Major administration I do not think sleaze will kill Brown politically.  It will be incompetence.  Most voters don't expect politicians to be particularly ethical but they do hope for basic management ability.

Samuel - Definitely Brown bottling out of the election. I feared we would have taken quite a beating from Brown if he called the election early. But, as Nick Robinson put it succinctly, he took the weapon that is choosing the timing of an election and "contrived to turn the weapon upon himself, wounding both his reputation and the morale of his party". He has lost his chance to ask to be given a chance. A couple of newspapers reckoned our exclusive story on it definitely being called off contributed to the disaster that was his announcement, which was nice.

"Funny" of the year

Tim - You can watch it on PlayPolitical here.  Acting LibDem leader Vince Cable became a superstar in the Westminster Village because of his From Stalin to Mr Bean jibe.  A cleverer and more human person would have laughed it off but Gordon Brown reacted with a stoney face.  Mr Cable almost never made the joke.  His wife had given it the thumbs down then he had tried it out on her.  Mr Cable was not actually first with the Bean idea, however.  That honour should go to Leo McKinstry who had made the Bean-Brown comparison a few days earlier in the Daily Express.

Samuel - Tony Blair meets Catherine Tate, and isn't bovvered. For Red Nose Day Tate went into her famous chavvy schoolgirl mode and did a scene with Tony Blair in No.10. After she waffles for a bit he cuts her off and after a pregnant pause turns the tables on her by coming out with the immortal "...am I bothered" line. People were amazed to hear those words come from our Prime Minister and he did it pretty perfectly. A good reminder of how much of a class act he is. Can you imagine how it would have went if Brown did it?!

Comments

[James Maskell]

Blairs meeting with Catherine Tate was pathetic. Ive never liked the Lauren character anyway and found it frustrating. It was a sad attempt for him to gain popularity after the destruction he caused to Britain for 10 years. It wasnt funny.

[Comstock]

If politics has come down to videos of people picking their noses, it is a sad state of affairs indeed.

[Tony Makara]

On the Catherine Tate show, both my son and myself swear that on the original broadcast we heard Tate say something like "What about weapons of mass destruction?" and Blair replied "Am I bothered?" Surely we can't both have imagined this because I've tried to find that footage since but it seems to have been removed. Can someone confirm that the original broadcast contained Blair saying he wasn't bothered about WMDs not being found?

[Umbrella man]

You're imagining things Tony.

[Tony Makara]

Umbrella man, it was on the original broadcast on red nose day and was later pulled out of later broadcasts, I remember at the time that both my son and myself were disgusted at the trivial way Blair was treating the deaths of Iraq civilians and servicemen. I'm 100% convinced of what I heard but just can't find the evidence to verify it. It has been deleted from all media it seems.

[Steevo]

Picking a nose and eating ear wax. Yo Tim. ;)

[Moral minority]

The moment of the year must be Blair leaving office after 10 years as PM.

[Tanuki]

My moment-of-the-year would be NuLab's admission in Parliament that it was going to have to use taxpayers money to prop up Northern Crock. At that point, any credibility they might have had for 'soundly managing the economy' went totally out the window - and the world was watching.

[Comstock]

Tanuki, rubbish. Northern Rock was brought down by the sub-prime problems in America and (ultimately) by the greed of the carpetbaggers who de-mutualised it.

[Tanuki]

Comstock's comments are to a large extent right: but why should Taxpayers money be used to bail it out?

The cynic in me thinks it's because it's a company based in the NuLab northern heartland. If it had been "Southern Rock" based in somewhere like Epsom, d'you think it would have had Brown et al rushing along with quite as much enthusiasm to help it?

Anyway, what's wrong with letting a few companies go to the wall? The economist Schumpeter makes a big thing of 'creative destruction', and letting the world see that markets deal swiftly/expeditiously to kill off failures would IMHO be a good thing. OK, so there'd have been a slew of people whom had their houses repossessed by their creditors - but that's life. Not everyone can win.

[Malcolm Dunn]

My pick of the year was when that morally bankrupt and politically corrupt man saying his last words (The End) as Prime Minister. It was so unfortunate that David Cameron then ordered Tory MPs to give him a standing ovation when total silence would have been more appropiate. Not one of Cameron's best decisions.

[James Maskell]

I agree Tanuki, that the taxpayer shouldnt be bailing out these companies. Unfortunately all the major political parties supported the move irrelevant of the signal it was sending everyone else.

Mervyn King was right about moral hazard (a slightly different view on creative destruction) and its a shame that he allowed himself to be dictated to by the Treasury. Giving Northern Rock all the money it wants gave the indication to other banks that to have systems not sufficient for running a bank during this current financial climate is acceptable since if it all goes horribly wrong, the public will hand them as much cash as they want with as few strings attached as possible. Due to this the British people practically own Northern Rock. Are we all going to be invited to the next AGM as stakeholders...like hell we will!