Hope I’m wrong with prediction

However, it is incumbent upon me to hold up my hands and admit that all of my 2019 predictions have been proved to be inaccurate thus far.

My claim that Theresa May’s political career would come to an end before the binmen took the Christmas tree away proved to be wildly off the mark. Then there was the assertion that Radio 2 would never again be played in the car at home time once Sara Cox took over the mike but I have been well and truly won over. And we should draw a line under my unwavering belief that my team, Portsmouth, would be pretty much promoted by the end of January.

These are all minor blips when you compare it to my view that if I had extra cash in my pocket, then life would seem that much rosier. It seems that this view, shared by almost everybody who has to go to work, is now as outdated as my DVD library when you consider the latest data by the Office for National Statistics.

We are now being told that despite the fact we have sky-high number of people in work and rising levels of spending power, our national sense of well-being has stalled.

Our centrally-funded number-crunchers have been measuring our feelings ever since they were instructed to do so by David Cameron, a man who is in pole position for the title of Most Maligned Politician of the Decade, which is impressive when you consider the competition he is up against.

Our Dave was keen that statistics were compiled on how happy people were. This was introduced in 2010, two years after the financial crash that shook the world.

The fact that people don’t feel any happier, even though life is comfortable for so many of us, merely serves to confirm the adage that there is more to life than money.

As I am clearly a lousy pundit, it doesn’t make any sense for me to make any more predictions but, given the uncertainty that we face in the coming months, I cannot see us becoming happier bunnies this year. There is every chance I will be wrong. Let’s hope so.