I asked Red Box readers and Times writers for their obscure political highlights which might otherwise be lost when the history of 2016 is written, and you didn’t disappoint:
Matthew Parris, Times columnist: “The likeable aide to Jeremy Corbyn and unexpected star of Corbyn, The Video, Gavin Sibthorpe, suggesting that ‘The best thing to do would be wait and let Jeremy fail on his own, I don’t think he will. But [let him] fail in his own time, you know.’”
Linda Summers, Red Box reader: “I nominate Nigel Farage for the most delusional political claim of the year when, in his recent interview, he contemplated a future role in bringing peace to the Middle East because, he said, ‘I’m quite good at bringing people together’. Hahahahahaha. There speaks the most divisive politician of modern times.”
Lucy Fisher, senior political correspondent for The Times: “Amid the chaos of the Labour coup, I was particularly amused when Team Corbyn repaid the rare loyalty of one MP, Louise Haigh, by issuing a press release about her reversing her resignation and returning to the front bench - when she’d never quit!”
David Burnley, Red Box reader, summed up the year as: “Liberalism is yesterday’s politics.”
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Fay Schlesinger, Times head of news: “It’s been such a leaky year that Theresa May has given up reading her red box and relies on The Times instead. Perhaps my favourite leak of the year, though, was a Labour one. Jeremy Corbyn’s allies decided to rank every Labour MP by loyalty - from ‘core group’ favourites to ‘hostile’ enemies, including Sadiq Khan, then candidate to be Mayor of London, and their chief whip. They popped all the names on a spreadsheet, which was duly leaked to this newspaper. Cue uproar.”
Adam Fowler, Red Box reader: “Political highlight for me has to be Angela Eagle’s doomed attempt to become Labour leader. Annoying at first, it soon became a hilarious carnival of cock ups and was a great bit of comic relief in an otherwise depressing year. I still pop on one of her YouTube videos and have a good chuckle from time to time.”
Richard Hancock, Red Box reader, recalled a story from early in January when government ministers were ridiculed for arriving 20 minutes late to meet locals hit by flooding - and on the wrong side of a collapsed bridge.
Philip Collins, Times columnist, nominated this passage from Daniel Hannan’s book What Next?: “A rectangle of light dazzles us and, as our eyes adjust, we see a summer meadow. Swallows swoop against the blue sky. We hear the gurgling of a little brook. We step out into the sunlight.”
Sarah Cullum, Red Box reader: “My favourite was the rebranding of the front cover of Ed Balls’ book following his success on Strictly.”
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Piers Routledge, Red Box reader: “Justice Secretary Liz Truss MP, who helpfully explained that patrol dogs ‘who are barking helps deter drones’. If that wasn’t enough to warrant mention, Sam Gyimah’s reaction surely does.”
Bradley Ayres, Red Box reader: “I will remember 2016 as they year Sir Bob Geldof thought he spoke for the common man by calling Nigel Farage a w***er whilst sailing down the Thames and sticking his finger up to the common fishermen. I think Geldof did more to aid Brexit than any other.”
Henry Zeffman, Times political reporter: “Here we... here we... here we f***ing go!!!” These words appeared on, and were hastily deleted from, Jeremy Corbyn’s Twitter account in early January. It transpired that a staffer had forgotten to log out on a shared computer in a Berlin hostel and some fellow backpackers had taken advantage. The words may not have been Corbyn’s but as a motto for 2016’s tumult you could do a lot worse.”
Frances Ivens, Red Box reader, said her favourite political moment this year was Sarah Palin’s 20-minute long speech endorsing Donald Trump: “I think it has been unfairly over looked for the title of most insane political moment of 2016 (although the competition is tough). Notable for its rambling, non-nonsensical and vacuous rhetoric, even by 2016 standards, the speech is both terrifying and entertaining in equal measure - a fitting summary of the year. Honourable mention must also go to Palin for being the only person to make Trump look like the saner person on stage.”
Vera Owen, Red Box reader: “I think David Cameron’s announcement in Parliament that he really does, despite all the rumours, love Larry has got up be up there with the most bizarre. The cats are taking over. Will we see a machinery of government change to create the Chief Mouser’s Department in 2017? Stranger things have happened!”
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Patrick Kidd, Times sketchwriter and diarist: “In early September, Jeremy Corbyn decided that what his leadership campaign most needed was the endorsement of a reggae band whose last hit single was as recently as 1993. In fact it was the less talented half of that band, since UB40 had suffered their own bitter schism after Ali Campbell (the Brummie vocalist, not Tony Blair’s spin doctor) stormed off with two bandmates.
“And so we gathered in a cavern off the Strand, where Corbyn made a speech about what he would do for the arts (free violin lessons for every child and all that) and then turned to Mr UB40 and asked as his opening question: ‘So, tell me, do you like classical music?’ The reggae man replied: ‘Sometimes.’ Later that day the other half of UB40 made it clear they would prefer a Labour leader who might win elections. It was red, red whine all over again.”