It is never easy to predict what is to come even over a few days, never mind a year. Who would have thought, for instance, this time last year, that Boris Johnson would have won a general election by a near landslide?

For the first time in nearly four years, the one thing that now looks certain for 2020 is that the UK will leave the European Union one way or another. It is also inevitable that the New Year will bring the departure of Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader, and the election of his successor.