BILL CARMICHAEL: REMAINERS CONTINUE TO MOAN SAYS MY CRYSTAL BALL

IT IS that time of year when I dust off my trusty crystal ball and peer into the future to see what 2020 will bring. Welcome to the latest edition of Old Bill’s Almanac.

Actually I don’t need a crystal ball for my first prediction, because it is pretty much nailed on. By the end of January we will have left the corrupt, antidemocratic, moribund cartel that is the European Union and we can begin life as a free, newly independent, self-governing nation once again, in full control of our money, our laws and our borders.

Hurrah! What a cracking start to the year!

Of course we still need to negotiate a trade deal with the EU, but the new Government seems so confident that can be wrapped up within 12 months that it has enshrined it in law.

And the EU already seems much more conciliatory and prepared to compromise now that its Fifth Column of Remainers have been so comprehensively routed in the election.

It would be nice to think that in 2020 Remainers, who have indulged themselves with ceaseless toddler tantrums for more than three years just because they lost a democratic vote, will finally stop whingeing – but don’t bet on it.

Expect many more Remainer tears as Independence Day approaches, not that it will make the slightest difference.

And it will be fascinating to see if any of the more lurid gloom-mongering of Project Fear comes to pass once we leave the European Union – total economic collapse, diabetics dying for want of insulin and then a shortage of food items like cheese and Mars Bars – to name just a few of the more preposterous predictions. I forecast none of these things will happen – but we will soon find out who is right, won’t we?

The early months of the year will also be time to grab a large bag of popcorn and settle back in your armchair for what promises to be the most vicious Labour party leadership battle in living memory.

The two wings of the party hate each other more than they hate the Tories, and the posh revolutionaries of the extreme left who have seized control of the party machinery will ensure that the coming election will be characterised by sectarianism and undiluted nastiness.

The problem is that neither wing of the party can escape blame for the catastrophic general election result. For example, Sir Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry, standard bearers for the centrists, were also the architects of Labour’s disastrous Brexit fudge which haemorrhaged support in the Northern heartlands.

Meanwhile the Corbyn-continuity candidate, Rebecca Long-Bailey, will no doubt press on with the far left economic programme and giveaways of “free stuff ” that were resoundingly rejected by voters.

Talent is very thin on the ground among Labour MPs – how else can you explain Leeds East MP Richard Burgon being talked up as a deputy leader?

But my picks from the possibles are Wigan MP Lisa Nandy and Barnsley Central’s Dan Jarvis, but I doubt Labour is in any condition to make such a sensible choice.

The other big political event of 2020 is the US presidential election in November when Donald Trump is seeking a second term.

Given the controversies surrounding Trump, his poor poll ratings and the fact he became only the third president in history to be impeached earlier this month, you would think his chances are small, despite a robust economy.

But I can’t help thinking that the Democrats are making exactly the same mistakes that led Labour to the rocks in the UK – flirtation with extreme left economic policies, an obsession with “woke” identity politics at the expense of bread and butter issues that matter to voters and, above all, the absolutely fatal error of thinking Twitter and other social media is representative of society as a whole.

Democrats begin choosing their candidate in the spring and much depends on whether they select someone of the left such as Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren who will be easy targets for the Trump machine.

One thing for sure if Trump is reelected it is sure to upset all the right people.

Whatever happens in the months to come, may I wish readers of this column a healthy and prosperous New Year.