So what happened?

It started off fine. Obama was still the President and in all likelihood Hillary Clinton would be the next President of the United States. In the UK, there was to be a referendum on their membership of the European Union but, there was very little chance that the people would vote to leave. Sure, there were some storm clouds on the horizon: Brexit, Trump but, these things COULDN’T happen.

Not in our society.

The campaigns against the EU and for Trump were based on things that WE don’t agree with.

WE tended to be people who live in cities. WE tended to think that there’s no reason that people can’t get married because of who they love. WE tended to think that everyone deserved a chance no matter where they came from or what colour their skin was.

WE also tended to be people who rarely encountered anyone outside of our social circles.

Now here, at the end of 2016, not 1916, WE struggle try to understand how demagogues and extremists gain high public office.

In all honesty, I saw Brexit coming. It wasn’t that hard to see if you knew where to look. Just get out of London and see what the people were saying. UKIP came in second in over 100 English seats in the 2015 general election.

Their message of isolationism was resonating and continues to permeate society. It works because it is an easy message and around the halls of Parliament, Members who thought their constituencies were safe got a quick, hard lesson. They learned that there were real and palpable fears. Fears that could not be abated by anything but drastic, irrational action.

Those same fears had grown in America as well but, I foolishly thought that America would be different, not because Americans were more enlightened than the rest of the world but, because I honestly thought that the people in the cities, the minorities and the women would out number the people in counties who have voted against the Democrats for decades.

To be fair, I was right. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly three million more votes but, that’s meaningless because Trump “won” the election via a system that he called a disaster just four years before.

On the 23 June and November 8th, in the blink of an eye, the world changed.

Within hours of both votes we were getting bombarded by his pundits who used the time old argument of, “Get over it!” or, in other words, "Give up, you've lost." Going as far to say that those who disagree with the outcomes of these elections and referenda are unpatriotic subversives.

It’s not hard to see what happened. Politics in America and Britain have pushed further to the middle while popularising a polarised debating environment. No one likes the middle but everyone likes a good fight. It gets the blood going but rarely results in any serious policy being created but that doesn’t matter because, "I" finally get to see someone as angry as “I” am.

It’s the politics of Prime Minister’s Questions. All smoke but little fire. That’s what’s happened here for years. A lot of heat radiates from the House of Commons but, it rarely leads to substantial policy. In America we have now entered the same realm. Trump had no policies of note other than headline measures to build 5,000 mile walls and ban Muslims. That’s all some people needed. Strong, irrational words to whip up the populous into a frenzy. Something to make it ok to publicly hate again.

Now the world is entering a rare age of uncertainty. Perhaps we are entering a new age of geo-political governance.

2016 will be remembered for many things. The year that EVERYONE died, the year that "the people fought back"but, I think this year will be remembered as the turning point.

For better or, for worse, the actions of this year will irrevocably change our planet. The good news is that we've lived through times like these before and come out wiser.

The key to success is to keep reading and writing even when others will not. The key is to keep your eyes open and take action. Democracy is not a spectator sport to be watched like a football game. You've got to get into it, get bruised and fight your corner because democracy is special, rare and fragile.

The greatest lesson to learn is that your vote counts and, more importantly, your voice counts. A person's vote is their voice. To not vote is to remove your ability to complain about the system that you could have had a hand in building. 64 percent of young people did not vote in the Brexit Referendum. Nearly HALF of the eligible voting population of the United States of America did not vote in the 2016 turning point eletion.

Like all new years, we have the ability to create ourselves anew. Societies around the world have the chance to change the world for the better or the worst. I know it can be dark out there for some but, now, more than ever, it is time to make sure you get the world that you want.

Also, the Cubs won...so anything can happen.