Retrospectives

For many in political and public life, 2011 is unlikely to be a year looked back upon with fondness. An increasing number of lingering hopes held by some electors were dashed as the right-wing mantra of dismantling the public sector continued to dominate the Westminster coalition. In essence, it was year when capitalism was called into question by Thatcher's grandchildren.

In Wales, voters never actually had the opportunity to see cross-party government in action reemerge. Perhaps they had a lucky escape or maybe coalition politics has merely gone underground in Cardiff Bay for a while. One outcome of the recent budget deal seems to be a temporary abatement of the hate-hate relationship between the Welsh Government and local councils.

Public sector workers took to the streets in protest at attacks on their pension rights. ConDem ministers responded with expected noises about possible "employment reform" and other restrictive measures. In fairness, one reform also included equal status for agency workers which upset at least one prominent tory donor.

The slow burning fuse of phone hacking finally went off under the Murdochs leaving possibly more smoke in its wake than had existed previously. But at least Lord Leveson's subsequent enquiry into the media managed to make day-time TV bearable.

Wales gave a resounding yes to the question of whether it wanted to move on from the status of colonial dependency. However, and following later elections, the newly appointed Labour ministers seemed a little taken aback by their new powers and undertook an extended sabbatical policy review. The outcome moved a former diplomat to pose whether devolution was worth the effort.

A former tory leader was left wondering how his party had gained votes but had left him unseated. For Plaid it was the other way around. Lib Dems managed to avoid the predicted meltdown although they ended up in a different kind of limbo following eligibility issues for two candidates.

Wales delivered a verdict on AV that matched the national mood of disinterest in the mechanics of democracy along with a distrust of those promoting change.

Meanwhile, Swansea Council went from basket-case to something possibly a bit more sinister as the chief executive, public services ombudsman and police were all asked to look into allegations of misconduct involving senior councillors.

Many press pundits claim that it was one of the busiest news years in living memory both nationally and internationally. At home, several reputations were made and lost politically whilst similar things were happening abroad and included a few regime changes to boot.

In other respects however it was remarkably much like any other year. So thanks for the comments and contributions received in 2011 and - as Mark Twain once said - now is the accepted time to make our regular annual good resolutions.  Next week we can start paving the road to hell with them as usual.