Monday, December 31, 2007

Ein Frohes 2008!

We're about to head down to Brighton to spend New Year with our friend Corinne, so all it remains for me to do in this 2,335th blogpost of 2007 is to wish everyone a very happy new year. I guess it's normal to be reflective at the end of the year and to evaluate whether it has been a good one or not.

On balance I think 2007 has been a blast. The security of being financially solvent again, having a fantastic private life, working on a range of interesting media and political projects and the Happy Hammers beating Manchester United (you knew I wouldn't be able to resist it...) means that I am very content going into 2008. And to top the year off we have just been out to buy a new car - well, it's a year old - a beast of a Q7.

So, have a great evening. I've turned moderation off, so do feel free to wish each other a happy new year in real time! See you in 2008.

30 comments:

Old BE said...

Happy New Year to you and all your readers.

Anonymous said...

Well done pal. I have still the same car as last decade so sod you.

Anonymous said...

Happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to you, Iain and thanks for the blog.

Happy New Year, too, to all the Iain Dale's Diary commentariat whose members I like.

Ralph Hancock said...

Hmm, a Q7, so named because it doesn't quite consume the entire output of Q8. A fine poke in the eye for the greens. A very happy and successful New Year to you, and may you enjoy your behemoth to the full.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year to everyone except the incompetent, corrupt, cretinous Mr Bottler McBean and his dismal cronies.

Their removal from office would make the New Year much happier for most people I think.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year! I'm off to swig some champers now. :)

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year. Sorry to hear about the Maidstone gig though. As one of La Widdy's constituents, this is our loss.

Daily Referendum said...

Happy New Year. I'm sure 2008 will be the best year yet.

Archbishop Cranmer said...

Richest blessings for 2008.

+Cranmer

Anonymous said...

Happy new year to one and all. Hope it's a good one.

Tony said...

A happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year to all! Have a great 2008!

Me said...

Put yourself in the shoes of any government front bencher; is there one that is looking forward to 2008 without a very bad feeling deep in the pit of their stomach?

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year. Thank you for the last many months of enjoying your blog. Very sorry about Maidstone. La Widders is wonderful, ever if I totally disagree with her about hunting/abortion/religion. Did not Dizzy (Mark 1) marry the widow, 20 years his senior, of the former MP?
As my car is now 29 years old, and to expensive to use daily (thank you authoritarian bastard socialists) but it is 6.75 litres and Crewe built (and sod the Toynbee/Monbiots - Redwood is right; where are the Range Rovers on Mars) do enjoy your new machines! My neighbour keeps telling me how his diesel Beemer does 62mpg through France every summer!!
Regards to you and all of your readers
Glyn H

Penny Pincher said...

'And Who Cares ...' whether it is New Years Eve or not? Yes, there are some of us who find it too sad and reflective a time to celebrate by mixing it with others - so it's a quiet evening in till my spouse and I toast each other with a hot mug of Milo and then go to bed at 12.30.
I'm hoping that 2008 will bring more cheer to us all.

Johnny Norfolk said...

Happy New Year to all.

Lets look forward to the end of the Labour/Brown dictatorship.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year, Iain, and to all who read your blog.

Let's keep taunting the whiny dog bottler all through 2008.

Anonymous said...

A huge bed, a huge car. Gio must be worried you will trade him in for a mastiff. Next, the world's largest iPod? Best wishes for an enormous New Year, anyway.

rob's uncle said...

I wish you joy of your good fortune . . remember that Fortune's Wheel keeps turning and part of your present happiness is due to no more than that: the chief enemy of future happiness is, and always will be, COMPLACENCY!

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year. I hope 2008 finds you a much merited seat.

Anonymous said...

Have a wonderful New Year Iain! Thank-you for bringing a gentle, composed tone to politics!

Anonymous said...

Want to know if you're, or someone you know is a gentleman?

1. In the company of feminists, intercourse should be referred to as:
a) Lovemaking
b) Screwing
c) The pigskin bus pulling into tuna town

2. You should make love to a woman for the first time only after you've both shared:
a) Your views about what you expect from a sexual relationship
b) Your blood-test results
c) Five tequila slammers

3. You time your orgasm so that:
a) Your partner climaxes first
b) You both climax simultaneously
c) You don't miss SportsCenter

4. Passionate, spontaneous sex on the kitchen floor is:
a) Healthy, creative love-play
b) Not the sort of thing your wife/girlfriend would ever agree to
c) Not the sort of thing your wife/girlfriend need ever find out about

5. Spending the whole night cuddling a woman you've just had sex with is:
a) The best part of the experience
b) The second best part of the experience
c) $100 extra

6. Your girlfriend says she's gained five pounds in weight in the last month. You tell her that it is:
a) No concern of yours
b) Not a problem - she can join your gym
c) A conservative estimate

7. You think today's sensitive, caring man is:
a) A myth
b) An oxymoron
c) A moron

8. Foreplay is to sex as:
a) Appetizer is to entree
b) Priming is to painting
c) A queue is to an amusement park ride

9. Which of the following are you most likely to find yourself saying at the end of a relationship?
a) "I hope we can still be friends."
b) "I'm not in right now. Please leave a message after the tone...."
c) "Welcome to Dumpsville. Population: You."

10. A woman who is uncomfortable watching you masturbate:
a) Probably needs a little more time before she can cope with that sort of intimacy
b) Is uptight and a waste of time
c) Shouldn't have sat next to you on the bus in the first place


If you answered 'A' more than 7 times, check your pants to make sure you really are a man.

If you answered 'B' more than 7 times, check into therapy, you're still a little confused.

If you answered 'C' more than 7 times, call me up. Let's go drinking.
You may also like... Rules For Women
Bicycles Or Women
About Women
Women's Point System
You're A Woman
Women's Questions

Anonymous said...

A high emissions wagon! That's a whole lot of offsetting. Good on you, but you'll not be popular on Platform 10.
Happy New Year and ta for the blog lad.

The Military Wing Of The BBC said...

Here's a story that has been (completly?) ignored, yet could heavily influence the Presidential run in 2008:

Military casualties in Iraq during December 2007 were the lowest since the war began.
http://icasualties.org/oif/

Are the guns of the MSM pointing in the wrong direction?

Mrs Smallprint said...

Happy new year Iain and all your contributors (lurkers your new year's resolution is to speak up).

I'm off out into the garden today to do my traditional "first weed of the year" on the basis it's all downhill from here.

Happy Blogging.

Newmania said...

Hey Iain while you are down in Brighton how about coming over to Lewes

All the best to everyone and death to New Labour

Paddy Briggs said...

Iain

A very Happy New Year to you.

I look forward in 2008 to

1. The resurgence of Labour in the opinion polls for positive reasons (policy and ideology).

2. The return to form of the LibDems under their bright young new leader.

3. The defeat of Boris and the re-election of Ken in London.

4. A growing recognition on the part of the British public that the boy David and his "sons of privilege" colleagues have nothing to offer bar facile jokes and public school debating skills.

5. The election of Hillary Clinton as the next President of the USA.

Cheers !

The Military Wing Of The BBC said...

Hey, Paddy

The housing market?

tits up?

Brown's credit boom?

Brown's system of Banking regulation?

Hasta la Vista, Baby.

Anonymous said...

What do the following have in common ...

* High rates of pregnant teenagers
* Disruptive classroom behaviour
* Skilled immigrants taking UK graduate jobs
* Huge levels of illegal immigrants
* Prisons over full
* Prisoners being let out early
* The rise of talentless- celebrities
* Massive destable credit-card debt
* 60% of divorced fathers being pushed out their kids lives
* Belief that global warming is caused by industry and commerce
* Low relative spending on the armed forces
* High relative spending on foreign aid with no significant benefit to the UK tax payer.
* Inefficient waste and spending in all branches of Government
* MPs awarding themselves pay rises
* Unfit, obese children
* Unfit, obese adults
* Spin and political lies
* 75% of young black men in London having their DNA taken
* The highest tax burden
* Millions being wasted trying to stop children from bunking off school
* Criminals and not victims being given
* Five million adults not working
* Child poverty increasing

OK - the list could go ON and ON. But there are enough symptoms here to see an underlying pattern.

My view is that all these problems come from the same mentality - that is the mentality I'll call Victimism.

What is victimism?

Victimism is the belief that a person who is in a relatively worse off position is somehow in the right - and the person who is in a relatively well off position is somehow in the wrong.

Socialism, Marxism, Communism, New Labour does not underlye this mentality - this mentality underlies them. So when an 'ism' (like communim fails) then these people simply hang their hat on a different peg.

Victimism is a bizarre way of thinking - and is driven by emotion and not reason. Victimism's driver is guilt and not justice. The output of the thought process is "a Right" - which is then treated as if it came from reason - but really it comes from emotion, it comes from politically correctness.

Victimism is generally female in character. It's the mentality of estrogen not testosterone. I say this matter of factually - a recent article pointed to testosterone leading to humour because it poked fun at "victims". Testosterone is the biological driver behind competition, and "competetism" - is the opposite of victimism.

Again Victimism is the belief that a person who is in a relatively worse off position is somehow in the right.

So an immigrant who is worse off is felt to have a right to come to our country. A person who is not working is felt to have a right to draw benefit. Black boys in London are felt to be untouchable. Disruptive children are can't be disciplined. Poor people in other countries are felt to deserve more money than soldiers who are protecting them. Imprisoned criminals are given more rights than their free victims.

Victimisim is a bizarre mentality - but real and running the country.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year to you and your readers, I'll be happy if Sunderland survive this season in the Premiership, although NuLabour gives us much more to worry about!

Anonymous said...

oh dear Iain - happiness is the very enemy of productivity but glad you have found some anyway. Having just spent a month in sunny Australia I can confirm that a change of government like a new partner puts lead in everyone's (virtual) pencil.