If there is one institution more maligned than parliament and our political system generally, it is the Christmas Office Party.

In a sea of political correctness they have been dissected and found wanting. Warnings about drunkenness, inappropriate behaviour, confessionals, misuse of social media etc, have dominated the airwaves giving opportunities for even clinical psychologists to warn about the damage done by these events. Apparently some firms are even introducing ‘sober chaperones’ to prevent the need for the morning after the night before showdowns, which can be folklore in some offices.

Well, what a lot of nonsense. The mostly good, fun office parties are rarely covered by the media or widely gossiped about. And when they are successful, that doesn’t necessarily mean people don’t get drunk or wish they had phrased conversations in different ways…

Christmas parties are a way to celebrate a year of hard work. They provide a chance to chat with colleagues at length, which there never seems the time or occasion to do in the office. The firm, if it is doing well, has a chance to spoil its employees a little.

So take little ole’ JPES Partners, my specialist communications company. Fourteen of us headed off to a reasonably glam private room in a Soho restaurant. Cheeky Secret Santa presents were wrapped creatively and swapped with wide grins. The drink flowed from 12.00, with our clients knowing we are all strangely unavailable on the last Friday afternoon but one before Christmas, unless it is an emergency. We are a relatively diverse firm and like each other. Conversation never stopped and lunch was followed by more drinks as we headed to a reserved bar area. Many, many hours later…we were somewhat merry, better friends and ready for Christmas. Conversations from the night before stayed just there. What can be better than all this? So, three cheers for Office Parties.

Except one word of advice. The Boss should never be the last to leave and any photos taken should be at the start of proceedings, never the end. There you go…free communications advice…And looking at the undoctored photo above…you would never have guessed what happened next…

Merry Christmas!

This victory is not a personal mandate for Johnson. His reputation as an untrustworthy rascal remains intact despite his handsome majority. But the Tories were always favourites to win comfortably as they successfully united the Brexit vote.

Labour’s equivocal approach to this issue, threatening to vote against their own deal in a second referendum, brought confusion and frustration in equal measures. The LibDem’s revoke article 50 approach was simply too harsh in the end. ‘Get Brexit Done’ was a simplistic and effective message. There will be a time when voters realise leaving the EU is not that simple and all their ills are not down to EU membership but that is for another time.

But actually, this wasn’t the Brexit election but the Corbyn election. What really did for Labour was Corbyn’s extremism; his voting record, his stubborn support of hopeless left-wing causes and hopeless left-wing colleagues. The electorate are not stupid and, across the North in particular, they rejected his Islington world view of life. And John McDonnell is almost equally to blame. The rash of spending promises, with the possibility of an inept Government taking control of the heights of the economy, was simply too much even for struggling voters. They knew its effect would be to create greater poverty down the line. Most defeated Labour candidates seem to confirm that ultimately it was Corbyn not Brexit which defeated them.

And what of the LibDems? The scale of their failure confirmed it wasn’t a Brexit election. Why they ever agreed to a December election nobody knows. Pure hubris. Johnson was always going to win against Corbyn simply because Corbyn was Corbyn. Watching Nicola Sturgeon celebrate Swinson’s defeat must be gut wrenching since the SNP lured the LibDems into joining them for a Christmas run at the polls. 12th December was certainly festive for the SNP.

So, what now? Almost certainly 10 years of Tory government. There is simply nobody else. The centre/centre left will need to start again. Tweaking the Labour Party a little via a new mediocre leader (incredibly Corbyn wants to hang on to next April to help the hard Left’s leadership candidate get elected) or the LibDems treating their self-inflicted wounds with sticking plaster is not enough. These two parties are dead in the water. A new Party free of its own history is the answer. That will take more self-awareness than shown to date and a lot more time.

Johnson will genuinely try and repay his northern voters. Austerity is over and he will be fairly radical in moving the focus of his administration. He will be very tough on the EU until he realises ultimately, they won’t budge and it will damage the economy significantly. At least he is free of the ERG. He will run an economically liberal, US centric government but it will also be socially conservative. There are no votes to be had in the new Tory constituencies for a soft approach to immigration and law and order issues, for example, whatever Johnson’s instincts.

The UK will be a harsher country as the tone of politics moves to the Right along with some of the Government’s actions. The Union is under threat with nationalists now in a majority in Northern Ireland and totally dominant in Scotland. The relief of getting Brexit done will soon be tempered by economic realities.

Yet it will be a generation before Remainers have another say on the EU and their focus now needs to be on rebuilding the centre ground of politics. A genuinely new Opposition party must be the focus of next year. It will be worth the effort. The electorate will tire of the Tories in the end.

And, finally… promises, promises… the last blog of the year will be relentlessly upbeat and possibly Christmassy…

Neither the Tories nor Labour deserve to win this General Election. They have dissembled and over-promised throughout their campaigns leaving a sorry choice for the electorate.

Let’s start with the Tories. The likely and even comfortable winners of this election. The campaign has gone according to plan, with one exception. Personally, Johnson is a weakened figure. His popularity as Mayor of London is long gone. In focus groups he is closely associated with the word ‘liar’. He has bumbled his way through the last few weeks; but his charm has evaporated. Whether it is avoiding Andrew Neil, ignoring a picture of a young boy on a hospital floor, inventing 50,000 new nurses when 19,000 are existing ones, claiming there will be no trade barrier between Northern Ireland and the mainland when leaked documents show otherwise, or promising to ‘Get Brexit Done’ when it simply isn’t that easy, he has faced incredulous hostility throughout. At the end of the campaign he still compares favourably with the dire Jeremy Corbyn; but is less popular than Theresa May.

Specifically, on Brexit, his claim is a shocking untruth. His Withdrawal Agreement hands the initiative to the EU, since he has promised (umm…) not to extend the deadline beyond the end of 2020. The EU will run negotiations down to the wire and we will be faced with a no-deal Brexit, huge compromises, or an extension by then. All this will be followed by years of further negotiations. If Johnson gets a huge majority he can, I guess, shaft the right-wing ERG and/or the DUP (twice over…). If it is a small majority who knows. And will Johnson, with a bruised ego and a (temporarily suspended) reputation for lack of focus, soldier on?

What is certain is that if there is no Tory majority, what little love there is among Tory MPs for Johnson, will disappear very quickly.

And then to Labour…Marxist, hopeless, anti-Semitic even. Their extremism has thrown this election away. Corbyn looks and sounds tired; but it is the sheer extravagance of their manifesto which destroys any semblance of consensus capitalism. This will do for them in the end. It should be their 1997; a tired Tory Party, riven by Europe, swept away by a rejuvenated Labour Party, 20% ahead in the polls. But it won’t be. With the LibDem collapse hardening Labour’s vote, and after a decade of austerity and a struggling NHS, they may do better than expected but not well enough. They should have walked it.

Finally, the LibDems. Mistakes have been made but they have also been unlucky. It is the old ‘standing in the middle of the road…run over from both directions’ analogy. The UK really does need to find a route back to centre-ground politics.

So how is this done? By voting tactically in every constituency since neither Labour or the Tories are fit to govern on their own. They have moved too far to the extremes. A hung parliament would force the Tories to move to the centre, assuming they can overcome UKIP infiltration. Labour will stay hard Left for a while since Momentum’s Corbynistas hold most internal levers of power. But this can’t last forever and Labour moderates will this time have to act. Which takes us to the LibDems. They will do badly in this election but a few more seats than expected and a rise to second place in many constituencies will set them up to help a centrist resurgence.

And the benefits? Johnson and Corbyn go. Brexit is re-visited fairly with a second referendum, which is couched in terms that will heal at least some of the country’s divisions. The Union has a better chance of holding together and parties advocating compassionate, centre ground politics can prove their worth.

‘Get Brexit Done’ is a Tory myth. Corbyn’s Labour Party are extremists. The LibDems deserve to strengthen their position, even if just a little. Tactical voting is everything to get British politics back to a position of commonsense. Go forth and multiply… as they say…those constituency results which will do just that.

We are in a General Election, but you would not guess it from the actions of the Opposition.

The terrible tragedy of the terrorist attack in London had Johnson tub thumping about jailing terrorists for whole terms. Past errors, despite his Party being in government for nearly 10 years, were swept aside by the fact he is ‘ a new Prime Minister’. Where is the liberal Johnson now as he seeks political advantage on law and order issues with the dire Priti Patel as a support act? Sadly, good politics though…

Johnson’s team has also played clever by refusing an interview with Andrew Neil on BBC, not taking part in a climate change debate on Channel 4 and not publishing a report on Russian influence in UK elections. Why would you when none of these actions are remotely helpful to you as the front-runner? They rightly guess the electorate don’t care or won’t do by 12th December, despite the hand wringing of liberal commentators.

Meanwhile, Corbyn’s nuanced response of treating terrorists on a case by case basis is sensible stuff except he has alleged form on sympathising with certain types of terrorists… It doesn’t appeal to socially illiberal ‘right wing’ Labour voters and, oh dear, we are in the middle of a General Election campaign if he hadn’t forgotten. He has handed more votes to the Tories. Sadly, bad politics…

Then, Labour are just waking up to the confusion of a myriad of spending promises which they are now trying to simplify. Whilst they have been successful on pushing the NHS, the sheer scale of initiatives and the cost of them is spooking floating voters. Ironically, their one area of success has been winning back Remain voters from the LibDems despite a somewhat neutral message. Why is this? Because for moderates, there is a growing panic about a Tory landslide, and they see Labour as the best block to this. How depressing.

And, as the election proceeds, where is Farage? A busted flush as his core message and even some of his candidates get absorbed by the Tories. Watch very carefully what he receives as his reward after this election for walking away from Tory held seats. A peerage is too obvious but something sexy on the global stage via Trump’s friends is a real possibility.

And, lastly, Jo Swinson? Another busted flush but she and her strategy have been treated far too harshly. She has performed solidly in her first election, even in front of Andrew Neil. (take note, Johnson). I rarely criticise the media, but they have done her and the LibDems generally a disservice. Treating parties by their share of MPs rather their share of polls in key televised debates needs reviewing as it simply perpetuates and exaggerates the deeply unfair consequences of a first past the post electoral system. But the real failure of the LibDems is unfortunately their fault.

Their mistake has not really been the harsh message of revoking Brexit but building a long term case for why you should vote for the LibDems outside this issue. This is the real problem and, with no joy, one identified by this blog earlier this year. Incredibly, they are the most fiscally conservative of the three major parties and should take credit among a sea of ridiculous, almost corrupt spending promises from Labour and the Conservatives. But they have not defined themselves clearly enough, for long enough, on broader issues. In this vacuum, it allows their history in alliance with the Tories to be used effectively against them.

Johnson looks on a roll and only two things are left to derail him now Trump’s NATO visit has ended. A last televised debate tonight and a sudden horrible realisation of what handing him a landslide victory means for a surge in the populist Right and bare faced English nationalism. I fear, as in many other countries, it will not be enough.