As the nation tucks into a restorative bacon sandwich on New Year’s Day – washed down of course by a bottle of Irn Bru, the mother of all hangover cures – Ed Miliband may be permitted a particularly wry smile.
As the bells rang in 2015 he was on course to sneak into Number 10 Downing Street come the General Election.
But it was the bongs of Big Ben on May 7 that did for him. That was when the exit poll dropped that showed he wasn’t getting anywhere near power.
Time makes all these things seem inevitable but they really weren’t.
Looking back it was clear the nation would never vote for a man who looked like a fairground gonk, who seemed to rub a bacon sandwich on his face rather than in it and who couldn’t walk off the
Question Time set without stumbling.
But 12 months ago the polls suggested otherwise.
He appeared set to join the club that includes Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Tony Blair rather than the list of Labour losers made up of Neil Kinnock, Hugh Gaitskell and Michael Foot.
The polls of course were proven wrong.
And it does seem a little unfair that while the victims of their mistakes have paid with their jobs – Miliband, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and Ukip leader Nigel Farage briefly – the pollsters carry on their merry way.
In a sign they may actually have been emboldened by their failure and are now just doing what they like, one company last week included a question about which Star Wars character would each party leader like to be in their latest fieldwork.
The answers in case anyone is interested showed the public think David Cameron wants to be Darth Vader, Jeremy Corbyn wants to be Yoda and Tim Farron wants to be cuddly Ewok Wicket.
No-one seems to have asked about Nicola Sturgeon either because of the dearth of female characters in the space saga or because they still haven’t got to grips with the new politics in which the SNP have utterly eclipsed the Lib Dems.
Indeed the SNP are now working on surpassing Labour as the party of opposition in Westminster and perpetual government in Holyrood.
They may succeed because Miliband didn’t just lead his party to defeat, he left it in such a state that Jeremy Corbyn seemed the answer.
Heaven knows what the question was but Corbyn’s unlikely elevation has only generated more questions, the most pertinent surrounding the very existence of the Labour Party in the future.
The tale of Ed Miliband’s change of fortunes from one New Year’s Eve to the next is informative though because it can happen to any politician.
Miliband didn’t fail because he was a bad man – he just wasn’t a viable alternative Prime Minister.
As 2016 dawns this week, George Osborne and David Cameron look to be riding high.
As it closes they could both be on their uppers if, as expected, an EU referendum is called sometime in 2016 and the result goes the wrong way for them, as it undoubtedly may.
The polls point to it being close but, as discussed, polls are to be approached with caution.
Far better to simply venture
out into middle England and ask opinions there where there’s little love for European institutions.
However, it’s worth pointing out that New Year is not just about reflecting on regrets and lost opportunities, personally or politically.
There is another side to the story.
As the bells rang in 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was no doubt sipping some Fairtrade wine and welcoming another unremarkable year, like his previous 32, in politics.
Who knows which politician will this week toast 2016 unaware that it is set to be their year?
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