A handful of predictions

Here we go. Spurred on by Pete earlier, it’s time for that essential, although often regrettable, end-of-year ritual. Not the prosecco-fuelled partying, but rather something with far more embarrassment potential: predictions for next year. That’s right, amateur guesswork dressed up as serious-ish journalism.

Some scribes are better at this than others. Ex-blogger Iain Dale hit the nail on the head by predicting the election of Ed Miliband as Labour leader. In a German aquarium, Paul the Octopus nailed all eight of his predictions for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

By contrast, Mike Adams from NaturalNews probably ought to stop trying to channel Nostradamus. Last year, he predicted that nuclear weapons would be unleashed in the Middle East. Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb predicted that, in 2010, Facebook would face a major new competitor – when, in fact, the networking site had a great year. In turn, Vice-President Joe Biden’s hopeful forecast that “more people are going to be put to work this summer” came to little, with the unemployment rate increasing to 9.8