2007 review: you know, the sort of stuff that fills up papers at this time of the year

For some, there was an historic inevitability about it. Yet there were rumours of rows behind the scenes, of personality clashes, of long-running battles fuelled by naked ambitions.

But the Spice Girls put it all behind them to reform for the money, sorry their greatest hits tour.

Elsewhere, power changed hands as Tony Blair was succeeded by Gordon Brown.

The year began with an unpopular Prime Minister behind in the polls, his party facing a police investigation over the way it raised funded. The year ends.....well, you can fill in your own punchline.

Gordon Brown entered Number 10 promising to restore trust in politics. Fewer than six months later, he had to admit that donations to Labour had not been lawfully declared. As I write, one candidate in Labour's deputy leadership contest is still trying to find out how an "administrative error" left him unable to declare donations properly.

Mr Brown won praise for his handing of a terror threat, of floods and of foot and mouth disease. He tried hard to reverse his image as a control freak by appointing a "government of all the talents" (GOATS), but his honeymoon ran out when he dithered over the election that never was.

Things got worse. The personal details of almost all Britain's families with children went missing (they still are). It emerged that thousands of illegal immigrants had been cleared to work in security jobs - including one whose job involved guarding the Prime Minister's car.


As these tales of woe emerged, one Labour MP - one of those who tried to force the last leader out a year after he won a mandate for a full third term - accused me of cynicism. The stories of dodgy donations and other cock-ups would be enough to test the idealism of Ulrika Jonsson's latest fiance.

Tony Blair's farewell tour may have dragged on a bit, but he was always newsworthy. The day he announced his departure and the day he went were among the most memorable of my 19 years reporting Parliament.

Dramatic political events happened outside the Westminster village. I still find it hard to believe that Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness work together in government, as they do in Belfast. The SNP's Alex Salmond is First Minister of Scotland; Plaid Cymru share power in Wales.

Some of the trivial stories were, as ever, the most fun. Peter Hain's Aga saga gave me a favourite quote: "At first I was a bit sceptical about the Aga. I thought it was a great big lump. But now I actually think it's fantastic. We found food cooked on the electric cooker tasted very second class."

Mr Hain failed to win Labour's deputy leadership contest but found time to rule out a Labour-Plaid coalition and to complain loudly when the BBC later suggested a deal could happen. Having a posh cooker must help when you have so many words to eat.

The Aga "story" was good for trade. This blog's predecessor, the original-but-now-dormant BBC Wales politics blog, was quoted in The Times, the Evening Standard and the Western Mail. There's honour among bloggers as well as among thieves.

We must not forget Lord Glentoran's role in cheering us all up. The newly-appointed Conservative spokesman on Welsh affairs told us: "As far as the politics of Wales is concerned"as of 48 hours ago I knew absolutely nothing. I now know nothing, plus a bit.

"I know nothing about the politics but I know quite a lot about the geography, having climbed most of the mountains."

Sir Menzies Campbell may have had better years but the former Lib Dem leader was a good sport when a Welsh hack turned up in his party conference hotel to ask him incisive, penetrating questions about the contents of that week's Hello! magazine, featuring Lembit Opik.

Two particularly enjoyable reports featured the unveiling of Lloyd George's statue in Parliament Square and a visit to Gordon Brown's tailor. Yes, Timothy Everest really did say "suits you, sir" (with a little prompting).

The year is ending with a personal milestone: my first child benefit form. Apparently, all I need to do is to send off the form, with our daughter's birth certificate and my bank details, to HMRC in Tyne and Wear.

What could possibly go wrong? Happy New Year.

No-jags Ming

If you've struggled to get to the betting shop counter to have a flutter on the next Lib Dem leader it's probably because there are Conservative MPs ahead of you in the queue.

Shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan says she's putting a fiver on Lembit Opik to win. The odds are generous - around 50/1 the last time I looked.

She says she's even contemplating a flutter on Mr Opik's girlfriend, Cheeky Girl Gabi Irimia - she's an even more generous 500/1.

Mind you, I won't be putting my pocket money on it.

Sir Menzies Campbell breaks his silence over his departure this afternoon in a BBC interview.

He says he's proud that his party put the environment at the heart of political debate.

Indeed, Sir Ming made a personal sacrifice, putting his gas-guzzling Jaguar in a museum as a contribution to cutting carbon emissions.

Now he's gone few would begrudge him if he asked for the car back.

Strictly Lib Dems

Was Sir Menzies Campbell a victim of ageism? Some of the newspaper coverage of the party conference, particularly the cartoons, was cruel but was it unfair or just politics today?

At 66 he's not exactly old - much younger than some past prime ministers and two years younger than the current Welsh First Minister and the Australian Prime Minister.

Perhaps it goes down to appearance. Sir Ming may once have been an Olympic athlete but a serious illness makes him look older than he is. Sir Cliff Richard was 67 two days ago. Perhaps if Sir Ming had tried Botox and dyed his hair he might have got away with it.

The age factor was used to justify criticism of Sir Ming's failure to make an impact with voters.

Some have suggested that the leader of the Liberal Democrats needs to convince voters that he'd be a credible prime minister. I think this is a slightly novel approach - few voters ever assumed Charles Kennedy was a likely future PM but they liked his conversational style as a contrast to that adopted by the Labour and Tory leaders.

Lib Dem MPs have queued up to praise their formal leader - which raises the obvious question of why they got rid of him.

The two favourites to succeed Sir Ming - Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne - both went to the same school, Westminster, which may leave Gordon Brown as the only UK party leader not to go to public school.

The new leader will be announced in the week beginning December 16, having been chosen by an exhaustive ballot of Lib Dem members.

Now that they've decided to make leadership elections an annual treat, perhaps they should be turned into TV shows with viewers allowed to vote.

Strictly Lib Dem Fever anyone?

Lib Dem buses

I don't know - you wait years for one Liberal Democrat leader to resign - and then three come along and quit at once.

Within months Sir Menzies Campbell, Lembit Opik and Mike German will be able to form their own ex-leaders' club.

The details of Sir Ming's departure have yet to emerge. At the weekend he was defiant that he would continue - perhaps he had a visit from party bigwigs, not so much the men in grey suits as the men in orange sandals.

Slap in the face for Plaid

My colleagues at Sky have put together one of the must-have accessories of the conference season - political Top Trumps.

These cards feature leading politicos from British parties, rating them for categories such as looks, majority, parliamentary skills and charisma.

Lembit Opik will be chuffed to learn that he features - although slightly less pleased to see that his rating for "looks" is 33 - the same as Menzies Campell.

At least he beats William Hague (25) in that department although Hague's parliamentary skills do score highly.

Most senior UK politicians do figure, although Peter Hain has been strangely excluded. He is doubtless "relaxed" about it.

SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond does feature, although there is no place for his Plaid Cymru counterpart Ieuan Wyn Jones, despite his recent promotion to the role of deputy First Minister.

This could well see the first autumnal surge in the Elfynometer and must surely be immediately denounced as either a snub or a slap in the face to Wales.

If it's any consolation, Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan is also overlooked. It's a cruel world.

Chilling out with the Lib Dems

I've just finished watching Sir Ming Campbell's speech to the Lib Dems in Brighton - a more energetic and impassioned performance than before, received politely rather than rapturously.

He took on the age issue, promising to make age an issue at the next election as, he argued, with age comes experience and with experience judgement. (At 66, he is almost old enough to be First Minister of Wales - Rhodri Morgan celebrates his 68th birthday next week).

I spent the rest of the morning touring the conference centre armed with a copy of Hello!, trying to find out whether delegates think Lembit "Cheeky Girl" Opik is an asset or a vote-loser.

Most activists were on his side, arguing that politics needs "characters".

The man himself was chuffed to get the results of our totally unscientific poll when I popped in to the conference chill-out zone to interrupt him during a foot massage.

You can see the results, including the massage, should you be so minded, on Wales Today at 6.30pm. Or watch it here.

The qualified holistic therapist in charge diagnosed me as "tense". After a week locked in a conference zone with a bunch of political anoraks, who wouldn't be?

Added alliteration

Sir Ming's people have been briefing us ahead of his speech tomorrow.

Expect an attack on the "cosy consensus" allegedly offered by Labour and the Conservatives.

How time flies. As I recall, his members were queuing up to join the "cosy consensus" after the Welsh Assembly elections earlier this year.

In fact, the only reason they're not in power in Cardiff is because the Lib Dems couldn't find a consensus, cosy or otherwise, between themselves on whether they should do a deal with Labour or with Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives.

Don't call me sir

Hot news from the Lib Dem leader in an engaging interview in The Times today.

“I don’t like being Sir Ming," says Sir Ming, "because I think it sounds silly. I’d rather people just dropped the Sir altogether and called me Ming Campbell.”

This welcome disdain for titles would be slightly more convincing if he were not listed on his party's website as initially Rt Hon Sir Menzies Campbell QC MP and subsequently as Menzies ('Ming') Campbell CBE QC MP.

If Sir Ming really doesn't like being called Sir Ming, he could have refused his knighthood.

Lib Dems have been keener than some other parties to receive honours for political service - I can think of several failed parliamentary candidates who've nevertheless received gongs for their political work.

Perhaps Ming Campbell, as we must get to know him, really does intend to break the mould.

Whatever next? MPs with Phds not calling themselves doctors? It does happen. The prime minister gets by without using his doctorate, although some rather more obscure backbenchers are so proud of their academic achievements they waste no opportunity to use it.