There was once an American TV show – called 24 – in which the action hero had just 24 hours to save his nation and the world from the machinations of an evil megalomaniac.

Kamala Harris had several months to do so but sadly didn’t manage it. (Her choice of a running mate hadn’t been her wisest decision, but the damaging interventions of her gaffe-prone old boss and the time it took him to withdraw from the race certainly hadn’t helped.)

2024 was a year of elections – a year in which around 1.5 billion people across the world went to the polls. This historic year for democracy saw national elections in countries whose total populations account for nearly half the number of people on the planet.

Those countries included India, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Mexico and Russia.

There was also an election in South Korea, followed, of course, by a failed military coup. The failure of the coup may be seen as a vote for democracy, in a country whose political leaders have often in recent years faced similarly ignominious fates.

France also had an election, one called a major political gamble by its beleaguered president, Emmanuel Macron. This surprise move however hardly paid the dividends he’d hoped for, and instead ended up empowering the Far Right – with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally becoming the biggest single party in the French parliament, resulting in political stalemate, uncertainty, instability, and chaos.

Here in the UK, a similarly beleaguered Rishi Sunak also called a snap election. The umbrella-less Prime Minister got increasingly drenched as he stood outside Number 10 Downing Street to announce his plan to dissolve parliament during a downpour of torrential rain. He then started his campaign with an ominous visit to the Belfast shipyard that had built the Titanic. He was soon caught lying about his opponent’s record and skipped out on Remembrance commemorations in France.

Things went from bad to worse for the Conservative Party, who were eventually reduced to their worst election result ever, with the lowest number of parliamentary seats in their history.

They had in part been knocked off course not only by their fourteen years of dishonesty, corruption, and incompetence but also by the resurgence of their old rival Nigel Farage, who appointed himself leader of a party called Reform UK, which for the first time went on to win its first seats in the House of Commons, including one for Mr. Farage himself.

However, residents of Farage’s own constituency have been somewhat nonplussed by the fact that, since his election, he has chosen to spend much of his time in the United States, wooing his beloved Donald Trump, rather than attending to their own concerns back home in Clacton-on-Sea.

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(Farage has also spent much time Stateside courting Elon Musk in the hope that his support may boost nasty Nigel’s eventual bid for Downing Street, in the same way as it proved key to his friend Donald Trump’s campaign.)

The Tories’ fate had been sealed by the economic failure of Brexit, by the lies and hypocrisies of Boris Johnson, by the fiscal catastrophe of Liz Truss’s brief premiership, and by the failure of Rishi Sunak to deliver fast enough on reversing the impacts of unusually high levels of inflation which, coupled with economic stagnation, had resulted in a cost-of-living crisis – a factor which also contributed significantly to American voters’ rejection of the Democratic ticket.

But the incoming Labour government hasn’t really done much better.

After robbing better-off pensioners of their winter fuel payments, introducing a Budget that hiked up employers’ National Insurance contributions, and being found to have accepted lavish gifts from party donors, Sir Keir Starmer’s popularity has taken an unprecedentedly sharp fall, as economic growth has stalled, interest rates have stood still, and inflation has started to rise again.

But he can at least thank his lucky stars that he isn’t Prince Andrew, whose latest indiscretions have obliged him to take yet another step back from his royal associations – or indeed the Archbishop of Canterbury who was forced to resign in November for failing to take robust action in a serious safeguarding case – or for that matter the disgraced BBC news anchor, or the disgraced BBC light entertainment presenter, or the disgraced BBC dance instructors, none of whom enjoyed a great 2024.

He might even be grateful that he’s not Kemi Badenoch, the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party who, shortly before Christmas, while trying to defend her lack of policy positions, told the BBC in an extravagantly nonsensical stream-of-consciousness masquerading as a political interview: “We are six weeks into a four-year general election… I want to open a restaurant in four years’ time… When it’s ready, you’ll see the menu. The restaurant will be ready… They’re already eating elsewhere now. They’re eating Labour.”

Thanks, Kemi. That’s very reassuring. Are you aiming at a familiar blend of Johnson incoherence and Truss insanity?

So that was 2024. Not the most edifying of years. But, as Western trust in democratic politics continues to decline, and as conflicts continue to rage through Eastern Europe and the Middle East – as the world continues to heat up and as we continue to stumble in the moral darkness towards the possibility of our extinction – let me leave you with one moment of light, one tiny scrap of faith and hope in humanity…

At the end of 2024, a blind comedian won a dance competition, not just any dance competition but British television’s most popular family show.

It’s not much, I’ll admit, but it shows that with a lot of effort and belief, anything might be achieved.

Here's to a better 2025!