Year-End Special

It’s our final episode of 2025 — and we’re going out with a bang (and a beer). Joseph, Holly, and Andrew reunite after a winter bug-induced hiatus to bring you our first-ever year-end special. We make bold predictions (that we’ll surely regret), hand out highly scientific year-end awards, play games, roast each other’s beer tasting notes, and toast to the chaos that was.

It’s everything you’d expect from Craft Politics — unfiltered, occasionally insightful, and always a bit ridiculous.

🗳 Rapid-Fire Reflections:

One word to sum up the political year? Fruitless, chaotic… and a bit shit.

The story everyone thinks they understood?
- Doug Ford’s World Series ad
- Trump’s tariffs
- Labour’s tax strategy — and still nobody gets it.

What we’re all pretending won’t matter in 2026, but will?
- Alberta separatism
- UK house prices
- Defence spending… and apparently, Andrew’s age.

🔹 Serious Predictions:
- Canada heads to the polls — and the Conservatives win (Joseph)
- Conservative leadership could change… in Canada (Andrew)
- Reform UK will peak in spring… then fade (Holly)

🌶 Spicy Predictions:
- The Parti Québécois doesn’t win in Quebec — CAQ makes a surprise comeback (Joseph)
- Zack Polanski’s meteoric Green Party rise hits a bump (Holly)
- Something very spicy happens in Labour ranks (Andrew… vaguely)

🕵️‍♀️ Quiet Shifts to Watch:
- Canada’s election becomes about chaos vs. control
- Doug Ford and Donald Trump become unlikely friends
- Joseph steps down from the podcast due to… “an incident”

🧠 Trivia & Games

📊 Real Headline or Fake?
- Doug Ford on The Amazing Race?
- Signal-gate?
- Andrew Percy in the Lords?

Let’s just say, trust no one — especially Grockipedia.

🗣️ Who Said It?
“I don’t particularly want to wipe someone’s bum”
“The best is yet to come… get the bungee harness ready”
“I originally saw AI as an efficiency gain. I was wrong.”
(Many of your favourites are quoted, willingly or not.)

🍺 Beer Notes or Erotic Fiction?

Andrew and Holly put Joseph’s Untappd beer reviews under the microscope.

- Did he really say a beer had a “beautiful head”? Yes.
- Did he really sneak one into a soccer match? Also yes.
- Did any of it make sense? You be the judge.

🏆 Year-End Awards
- Most Predictable Surprise: Angela Rayner resigns
- Best Attempt at Spin: Signal-gate
- Worst Use of a Chart: Lib Dems still doing Lib Dem things
- Phrase We Never Want to Hear Again: “Looks gorgeous. Tastes like a marvel.”

00:00 Welcome and year-end special intro
02:55 Rapid fire warmup — the word that best describes this political year
04:01 The story everyone thinks they understood but didn't
06:32 The thing we're all pretending won't matter next year but absolutely will
12:16 Serious predictions for 2026
22:15 Spicy predictions — the out-there calls
30:58 Nobody's talking about this — the quiet shifts
36:04 Trivia time — real or fake headlines
40:41 Who said it? Quote attribution game
47:03 Beer porn — testing Joseph's tasting notes
59:14 Year-end awards and wrap