Few people will have been looking forward to the end of 2011 more keenly than the Gillard government, and the rather-less-than-mighty Australian Labor Party. Indeed, the only thing that might have dissuaded them from celebrating is the possibility that this year might be worse.

THE Opposition Leader was without doubt the standout performer of the year. Put aside your opinion of his (lack of) policies and his negative tactics. Indeed, put aside his poor personal ratings, too. Abbott can single-handedly take credit for the pressure the government is under. Despite coming heartbreakingly close to winning the 2010 election, he continued to work every day to expose government failings. So good has Abbott been, it's hard to distinguish between opposition spin and how Labor is really travelling. Can he keep it up for another two years? (see critique of this crap below)

INTEREST rates are headed down, the sharemarket will climb, and we'll survive whatever Europe throws at us.

That's the consensus of the 20 economists polled for the BusinessDay end-of-year economic survey.

Our terms of trade will slip in the year ahead, but not by enough to derail the Treasury's and Reserve Bank's pleasing forecast of economic growth close to trend.

Without question, 2011 was a year replete with hyperbole and false prophecy, which, come to think of it, is typical of our time.

JANUARY The new year has barely begun when Bob Ellis, the seer of Palm Beach, declares on the ABC's The Drum: ''I alone, in all of Australia, think Labor will hold government'' in NSW. Shortly before April Fools' Day, Barry O'Farrell leads the Coalition to one of the greatest victories in Australian political history. Earlier in January, reports emerge that environmentalist Tim Flannery predicted that, within this century, a ''strong Gaia will actually become physically manifest''. One person's Gaia is another's full moon.

Real estate mogul and reality TV personality Donald Trump has quit the Republican Party to register as an independent, opening the way for a potential outsider run at the White House.
Trump made the switch on Thursday, his lawyer, Michael Cohen, told The Hill political news website.
Trump did this "in order to preserve his right to run as an independent ... if he is not satisfied with whom the candidate is", Cohen told The Hill.

Animals are more intelligent than we think. For example this morning I witnessed something very cunning...

Foreboding and warning. Egypt should have felt it coming. This was the worst so far. Hope is gone. The people are in despair. As our imam shouted Friday at noon prayer: Will it get worse before we have cleansed the land of Satan?

A large metallic ball has fallen out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia, prompting baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency.

With violence and government crackdowns making headlines from so many familiar parts of the world, there's hardly been a peep in the media about the biggest and ugliest massacre of all: Last Friday in Kazakhstan, riot police slaughtered up 70 striking oil workers, wounding somewhere between 500 and 800, and arresting scores.

You'll be chuffed to know our country is doing its bit for 'world peace' this Christmas.

The Australian Army is preparing for longer "campaigns"; we voted against Palestine's admission to the UNESCO and we lobbied to weaken the international ban on cluster bomb munitions.

We also decided to sell uranium to India, a country standing outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a country whose nuclear program is stimulated by its neighbour (Pakistan) having the fastest-growing nuclear weapons program in the world, and a country whose government has been prepared to bribe MPs to secure the votes for a nuclear future, as evidenced by the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008.

The soft-roader in front sports one of those ridiculous ''baby on board'' signs that makes you want to shove its exhaust pipe up its rear-vision mirror. (Like, sure, I was going to rear-end you, but since you have a BABY on board I'll save my murderous impulses for the next person.)

The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, has said Nauru isn't the only option for offshore processing and the Coalition would be ''perfectly happy for boat people to go to Manus Island''.

Banks have gobbled up nearly 490 billion euros ($635 billion) in three-year, cut-price loans from the European Central Bank, easing immediate fears of a credit crunch but leaving unresolved how much will flow to needy eurozone economies.

Following a string of failed attempts by eurozone leaders to thwart market attacks on the bloc's weaker members, hopes of crisis relief before year's end had been pinned on a massive uptake of the ECB's ultra-long and ultra-cheap loans.