jupitersterrain four

misc draft 

self-sacrifice in training for medals and unaffected humility on receiving them had us sobbing throughout the Games and ensuing Paralympics

the bravest and most scintillating front-running performances ever witnessed

Even the immortal  paid homage

shoot his candidacy in the head by dismissing 47 per cent of voters as sponging wastrels

Obama’s stultifyingly disengaged first TV debate allowed Romney to surge on to his shoulder for a while, he recovered his wits and won anyway

If Obama bucking the trend that had seen post-credit crunch electoral defeat for every incumbent (latterly, Nicolas Sarkozy in France) gave David Cameron hope, he needed it after a nightmarish year

 Of all the incoming he faced in 2012, the deadliest came from friendly fire in the monstrous shape of George Osborne’s Budget. While lowering the top rate of income tax had a mixed reception, the response to ham-fisted assaults on grannies, pasties, charities and conservatories was unanimous

The plethora of U-turns sent the Government into a corkscrew spin as it did a fine impression of Clive Dunn, who died in November, in full “Don’t panic, don’t panic!” mode

Ed Miliband purloined the Oxford English Dictionary’s new word of the year, minted by writers on the late, lamented The Thick of It, to label the Budget an omnishambles. But Mr Cameron had more to concern him than his Chancellor’s incompetence. Mr Miliband’s growth in stature was matched by that of another leader, Nigel Farage of Ukip, who is also rather less blithely dismissed as a joke today than 12 months ago

The PM’s year wasn’t devoid of the odd shard of pleasure. Louise Mensch permanently yielded the whip to spend more time with her Twitter account in New York not long after being passed over in the reshuffle. Her fellow back-bench über-narcissist, Nadine Dorries, had it taken from her for favouring the ingestion of testes in the Australian jungle over the cares of her constituents

A desperately weakened Nick Clegg felt compelled to issue a public apology for his tuition fees treachery. When he gave permission for “I’m Sorry” to be set to music, the result was only kept from becoming our viral hit of the year by a chubby South Korean rapper’s hideously addictive song and dance video, which became the first to reach a billion hits on YouTube