Ed Balls: Cameron 'undermining the Speaker'

Jon Sopel Presenter The Politics Show

Hello again...

Superman or SuperSopel?

When I was a kid there was only one conversation in the playground.

If you were a superhero - what special power would you pick?

At first, I rather fancied being as strong as the Hulk or as fast as the Silver Surfer.

Frankly, I'd have settled for anything that let me hang out with the Invisible Woman - although that might just have been the teenage hormones talking.

But now I'm a political journalist, I realise I was barking up the wrong tree.

Give me any superpower now and there is only one I would choose. And that is the power of prophecy.

It wouldn't half help with some of those tricky political interviews.

That Davos interview...

Last January, I trudged up a mountain to the Swiss town of Davos.

I was there to interview the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, about the political year ahead.

Looking back on our conversation now there was so much a super-Sopel could have asked him.

Gathering of the world's great and good in Davos

But without the power of prophecy, it all went by the wayside.

I could have asked him about the future return of Peter Mandelson to the Cabinet.

About Barack Obama becoming the first black man in the White House.

Boris Johnson ruling London.

Or about my former colleague, John Sergeant, becoming a political dancing sensation.

It really has been an incredible year.

Some of it frankly unbelievable.

Ed balls - focused on tackling the scandals in child-care

I did ask him seven times if he thought there'd be a recession though. And each time he said no. Prime Ministers would probably pick the power of prophecy too.

Back next year

On Sunday, it's our last Politics Show of the year.

So we'll be looking back at some of the key moments of 2008 and trying (all too humanly) to predict the year ahead.

The Education Secretary, Ed Balls will be with me. So too will Boris's predecessor Ken Livingstone, alongside David Davis and Vince Cable - surely the Tory and Lib Dem politicians of the year.

Politics max - coming to a street near you

We'll also be revealing the millions police spend on accessing our mobile phone records.

And Max Cotton will be revisiting some of the people who wrote to him with their political problems this year. Where are they now? And how have their lives changed since he first caught up with them?

That's all on the Politics Show this Sunday.

Unless, of course, the unforeseeable happens and things change.

Now where did I put that cape? And with the demise of the phone box, just where can I get changed?

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