As 2007 draws to an end, inevitably we will reflect on our successes and failures throughout the year and make notes of lessons to be learnt. Beyond the personal, it is also interesting to muse over the highs and lows of the year and wonder whether the world is a better place than it was 12 months ago. We’ll let you decide for yourselves. Here’s a quick wrap of the highlights from 2007:

January
At the start of 2007, Eid celebrations coincided with the brutal execution of Saddam Hussein. Regardless of one’s personal opinion of Saddam, the timing and humiliating manner of the ordeal was a grotesque affront to anyone with a conscience.
Politics polls kept pundits well enthralled, with the rise and fall of Labour – Tory popularity. Labour began the year with 32 % support, 8 points behind the Tories on 39%, with the Liberal Democrats trailing at 19%. An end-of-year poll placed the Conservatives on 40%, Labour on 32% and the Liberal Dems on 16%.

February
The cash-for-honours inquiry continued to gain momentum in February, with the news that Mr Blair had been spoken to, earning him the dubious distinction of becoming the first serving Prime Minister to be interviewed by police.
Rumblings began within the Labour party that Mr Brown would be denied a smooth ascension to the leadership, as rumours gathered throughout the spring that David Miliband, then serving as Environment Secretary, could be persuaded to stand against Mr Brown. Charles Clarke and Alan Milburn stoked up speculation of a coup by urging Labour to conduct an "open participatory debate" about its future.

March
The Iranians captured 15 Royal Navy personnel they caught spying in the Persian Gulf with Britain insisting they were merely out cruising Iraqi waters. The sailors were well treated and subsequently pardoned, but returning to British shores quickly cashed in on their ‘ordeal’– selling their stories to the tabloid press. Stories of their tribulations were splashed across the tabloids, with seaman Arthur Batchelor, admission that he cried when the Iranians took away his iPod. Brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it?

April

Labour continued to suffer in the polls, prompting Mr Blair to urge his party to "hold its nerve". Momentum continued to gather around Mr Miliband as a potential challenger to Mr Brown, but he warned he would not be seduced or bullied into running.

May
Local elections held across England and Scotland offered little relief for Labour, with the party suffering badly while the Conservatives made inroads into the all-important northern seats.
The election results were particularly stark, coming ten years after New Labour had celebrated its landslide election victory. Having achieved a decade in power, Mr Blair finally confirmed on May 10th he would be standing down as Labour leader and prime minister triggering a leadership contest. John Prescott also confirmed his intention to stand down as deputy leader.

June
On the plus side, 2007 finally saw the back of Tony Blair with the long-awaited handover to his chancellor, Gordon Brown with Harriet Harman as his deputy. In a swipe at his predecessor's unpopularity by the end, Gordon Brown’s arrival promised ‘more substance than style’ in politics. Nevertheless our party political leaders did not fail in keeping us entertained.

Mr Cameron clashed with his own party over grammar schools, subsequently announcing that the next Tory government would build more grammar schools in areas already served by the 11 plus.

July
Gordon brown had just appointed his first Cabinet, when Britain's first female Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, was put to the test with two failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow.

August
August was an interesting month: with the prospect of a snap election and the resignation of Menzies Campbell. With election fever gripping the nation, MPACUK teams across the country geared up for some serious campaigning – until of course Gordon Brown decided otherwise. A pragmatic decision or not, it certainly dented Brown’s credibility and had a knock-on effect on Labour’s popularity in the polls.

September
The credit crunch that had hit America in the summer finally washed up in the UK in September when the Northern Rock bank was forced to apply to the Bank of England for emergency funding, prompting a run on the bank. Although opposition politicians initially backed state support, criticisms of the government's handling of Northern Rock would harm the Brown-Darling team into 2008, when the bank is expected to be temporarily nationalised.

October
The Tories were creeping ahead of Labour’s summer poll lead; one poll placed the Tories on 43%, following their successful conference in Blackpool. . Meanwhile a dismal 11% rating for the Liberal Democrats in one poll was followed five days later by Sir Menzies' resignation. The search for a new party leader had become an all too familiar pursuit for Lib Dem members, as they chose 40-year-old Nick Clegg in December, the third leader in as many years.

November
Labour continued its slow slump down in the opinion polls throughout November, although optimists duly noted that it was not as bad as during the final weeks of Mr Blair. With the botched snap election already looming embarrassingly behind Mr Brown, the government was undermined further by a series of minor scandals, including the news thousands of illegal foreign workers had been cleared for security jobs.

December
Perhaps the end of 2007 will be remembered by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan; an untimely death that once again thrust this fragile nation into socio-political turmoil. In its short history, Pakistan has rarely enjoyed social, political or indeed economic stability; poor leadership, vulnerable borders, foreign meddling, heightened security threats and most importantly the absence of democracy have prevented Pakistan and its people from ever realising their potential.

Some news throughout the year …

Within the last few months, Labour’s misfortune’s seem to keep growing: revelations that thousands of illegal foreign workers had been cleared for security jobs, the disappearance of the now infamous two computer disks that contained personal information of 25 million child benefit claimants and there were revelations of unlawful party donations of more than £650,000 channelled through intermediaries of the wealthy property developer David Abrahams. The Mendleson-Abrahams fiasco was a glaring example of just how sneakily the Zionist lobby undermines the democratic system.

In Palestine, according to B'Tselem, Israeli forces killed 373 Palestinians in 2007 alone bringing the total of innocent Palestinian deaths since 2000 up to almost four thousand, half of them children. The number of Palestinians wounded is far greater. The report highlights a number of other startling facts:
• The number of Palestinians killed in intra-Palestinian clashes was the highest throughout the intifada
• In 2007, there was an increase of 13% in the number of Palestinians held in administrative detention without trial, which averaged 830 people
• Israeli settlement population grew by 4.5%
• The number of houses demolished in East Jerusalem rose by 38%.

In Iraq a new poll reveals that the number of deaths in Iraq since 2003 could be as high as 1,000,000. The poll released today by ORB, the British polling agency that has been tracking public opinion in Iraq since 2005. These shocking statistics would indicate a death toll that exceeds the Rwanda genocide from 1994 (800,000 murdered).

In other news, former vice president Al Gore not only won an Oscar but a Nobel prize for his work on the environment and Vladimir Putin was named Times man of the Year…whatever next!

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