2011 at a glance

It has been one of those years. After 47 blog posts this year, there have been much more headlines I would have analysed. This week alone where 2011 is being wrapped up, according to the Met Office, this year has been the second warmest on record. Although this Christmas and Easter time were the warmest I can remember, the summer period had completely the opposite effect with weather being the wettest. In my personal opinion, the Christmas weather, despite mild has been miserable in my part of the United Kingdom.

Doom and gloom in finance department
More news headlines emerge recently as Hawkin's Bazaar has entered administration. Barratts and La Senza has also been victims of this in the last month. The future of the High Street has never looked so bleak but I hope they do recover in 2011. Of course, they have been one of the biggest "endangered species" of the year with the economy in a state. Never in my life would I imagine post-Iraq 2003 that the United States would be more financially stable than Europe.

Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have been one of the main focuses of European politics in 2011. They've been trying to solve the Eurozone which has been meddling almost all year long. They are trying to get it back to normality by proposing a new treaty a month ago. Twenty-six nations put pen-to-paper to this veto and agreed it was the best way forward to "save the Euro", however only one nation said no because it wasn't in "our national interest" - for those who don't know about this, it was Britain. It was certainly a controversial action by the UK and put pressure on them to propose for a referendum on whether the country must remain in the European Union. This decision has upset the likes of Sarkozy as expected but in my view, I feel that Britain acted a little cowardly. I mean every country who signed the veto cannot be wrong and already have risked their country's futures so Britain not being involved in this is baffling. Should we be in a referendum, I don’t think so. If we were, Britain would certainly want to get out of the EU because of the influences by Daily Mail and Daily Express who encourage their readers to be against European politics and to me getting out of it would be a mistake.

We need the EU support. Norway and Switzerland who aren't part of the EU do not need the money but those involved have to. The recession in Britain is still at large and we have seen Greece and Ireland this year getting bailed out. Even Italy has been under financial pressure which effectively got Silvio Berlusconi out of his job as leader. It is a situation that critics say it will take a very long time to recover however the recent political changes in Italy could be a small lifeline. If Sarkozy doesn't manage to create miracles by May coming, their public could lose faith in him and vote for Francois Hollande making him man in charge to form a solid partnership with Merkel of Germany. Modern politics means constant change and the public nowadays demand quick, constructive policies and actions - being a politician today is not an easy job compared to this time twenty years ago, unless it has always been like this.

The Protester
Talk of change, there has been a lot of it this year. Who would have thought this time last year Hosni Mubarak would leave Egypt and Colonel Gaddafi would be killed and family exile away from Libya. What has happened in the Middle East has amazed me and TIME Magazine is right - "Person of the Year 2011" is "The Protester". The public in the countries at the Arab League have been really influential and even today, Syria want their regime out. It is a bloodbath out there and has been for months. There have been sad, yet powerful scenes and let us expect further changes in the Middle East's top order in 2012.

Not just the Middle East but let us not forget the Occupy Protests which started out in the Wall Street and continued across the World. They even had tents up in my hometown Cardiff outside the Unite building in Cathedral Road protesting against greedy bankers and overall, capitalism. I have been rather critical of this action as I kept thinking to myself they are not going to make a difference especially in London where their presence forced to close St. Paul's Cathedral for the first time since World War II but they did have a voice and gave a few politicians and bankers a scare, giving them a firm warning. Perhaps in a few years to come "capitalism" will be a thing of the past, like "communism" in some nations. Politics is unpredictable.

Despite the protesters passionately stating their cause peacefully and with minimum damage, the minority ruins it for the majority. The British public are unfortunately unable to forget the riots in August affecting major cities like London, Manchester and Birmingham costing lives and small businesses. Statistics do show most of the thousands arrested were the youth but let's not point fingers at them. Watching buildings burning down was distressing especially when I was on holiday gloating to people about Great Britain - well watching scenes like what we saw a few months back was something not to be proud of. But I feel we may have recovered from that and hopefully those memories would be forgotten in the future although difficult to do so.

Press bonanza and entertainment fun
I'm going to keep this blog mood serious until I add some light-hearted information and things to actually look forward to in 2012. But as I said, let's keep serious for now. This year has witnessed the closure of News of the World - Britain's longest running newspaper. They have been guilty for illegally intercepting phones of celebrities, murder victims and royal family members just to get a news story to put in their paper. They were the most popular Sunday paper so their readers must have felt cheated hearing that the headlines were found while the paper broke the law. This put a lot of pressure on Rupert and James Murdoch and their News Corporation's British conglomerate News International as they have been questioned by MPs wondering if they had anything to do with this scandal. Of course they deny being involved but some say otherwise. Andy Coulson and Rebekar Brooks have also been blamed as they were editors at the time of the phone hacking - both have been arrested and released on bail this year. Coulson of course was David Cameron's PR man in government until he resigned in January.

The phone hacking scandal is something I have been interested in all year and to keen readers of my blog would realise I've been writing about the matter since the story really broke out in July when Murdoch wanted to take full control of BSkyB - he already owns 40%, the biggest stakeholder of one of Britain's largest broadcasters but he made the decision to pull out of the potential move because of the happenings at News of the World, a paper the Murdochs took control of since 1968.

The situation now is a little unclear but all eyes are on the Leveson Inquiry. In my previous blog post, I suggested Piers Morgan, another former editor of News of the World had to be interviewed in this media frenzy or as I now like to call it as it is winter, "a media pantomime". Morgan's performance to me was a bit below par as he was raving about Daily Mirror another paper he edited rather than focusing on the main issue. He was News of the World editor for only a year and in media terms, that is not a lot of time so my main question is "why the rush to leave?" I predict he will have to return to the Leveson Inquiry at some point and I don't want a video conference, I think for Lord Leveson sake, to see Mr. Morgan in the flesh. Despite my criticism of Morgan in this situation, I do enjoy his banter with Lord Sugar on Twitter - been one of my online highlights of 2011 for sure.

I do have other highlights too which leads me onto my final part of the last blog post of 2011. Here are my little awards I made up but see if you agree with me:

Song of the Year: One must admit, this year's music has been impressive. Records have been broken in most parts of the music industry and the best singers by far have been Adele, Jessie J, Cee-Lo Green and whichever new songs BBC Radio 2 play. With me being the type to prefer the "older" music than the recent music, I have been satisfied by the new music. Who would have thought I like a song from Coldplay or Olly Murs this year it's unbelievable. Here are my top five best songs of 2011:

1. Noah and the Whale - Tonight's the Kind of Night
2. Jessie J - Nobody's Perfect
3. Adele - Set Fire to the Rain
4. Glen Campbell - Ghost on the Canvas
5. Imelda May - Road Runner

Film of the Year: I am not a massive film goer and not seen many films released this year. I've been to the cinema twice and gave one (Rio) a three star and (Hangover II) half a star. I have seen the final Harry Potter instalment, 2011's highest grossed film which I must admit, it was better than the other seven they made but still, a two star. The most impressive film I have seen released (in the UK) this year is the likes of The King's Speech which Colin Firth was deserved of the 'Best Leading Actor' award at the Oscars but my favourite has to be The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. I remember wanting to watch it in the cinema but waited until its DVD release and thought the storyline and acting was brilliant. It is probably the first Damon film I like.

Sporting moment of 2011: As a Welshman, there is one clear winner in this category. I must emphasise how unpredictable and captivating this year has been but Wales fourth place finish at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand brought a nation so small together in support of the players who were so dedicated, it made England's performance petty although we may argue their off-the-pitch antics was unprofessional. I recall when Wales lost to France in the semi-final due to that controversial decision to introduce the referee half French, we all were outraged but looking back, I can say it was a proud achievement and wished one of the Welsh players like Shane Williams who retired earlier this month was recognised at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year but unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Person of the Year: I can put my hand up and agree with TIME Magazine as mentioned before but I'd like to have a different, more alternative choice. This individual has been hovering around the British news for over half-a-year and it can be argued this person has been influential with politicians and how the media is shaping today. He is Hugh Grant. It might sound like a bizarre choice however looking back at my previous blog posts and the involvement he has had in the media is remarkable. He is no longer that very English man capable of sleeping with a lot of women making the same films over-and-over again. These aren't my quotes but having conversations with my friends and acquaintances, it is clear he wasn't popular but I must admit - he is a great actor. Personality, maybe the media have over-exposed and potentially ruined his reputation. This year however, has been all change as he has been one of the head campaigners against phone hacking, being a victim himself before. He has been speaking at the Leveson Inquiry and MP Inquiry this year shaming News of the World and blaming Mail on Sunday as well in the process. He has been a Prime Minister before in Love Actually but this time he is changing the way we think about the press.


Politician of the Year: You will probably looking at me in disgust - how can there be a politician of the year after all that has happened this year? But I think there is a clear winner, one politician making a difference and hoping his country would be doing it alone. He is Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland. As a Labour supporter, I have always admired the Scottish National Party leader as he has a vision of making Scotland independent. Wales and Northern Ireland of course would want to do the same but Salmond has blossomed Scotland and now have the financial capabilities to be independent and if there was a referendum on this and I was living in Scotland, I'd say yes to them being independent.

Moment of 2011: This is more of a personal moment rather than a news moment but I discovered at the end of October, beginning of November that I will be involved in the London 2012 Olympics. It was the most pleasing news I had all year and this year has been an eventful one. Next year is going to be super I'm going to be part of training in the run up to something Britain wanted for so long. It is a legacy I'm proud to be involved in and the forthcoming 366 days (including leap year day on February 29th) would be an improvement than 2011 I am sure of it.

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