Much has been written about the rise of populism in 2016, about Brexit in the UK, and how in the US it was the year the evangelical movement helped Donald Trump over the line in the race to be President.

But what of the coming year in politics?

Here – requiring a healthy pinch of salt for such apparently unpredictable times – are a few predictions for 2017...

1. After months of constitutional wrangling over Brexit, and amid indecision about a "hard" or "soft" version plus resistance from the remaining EU members to do a deal with the UK and a growing Tory rebellion on both sides of the divide on the backbenches, Theresa May calls an early general election to clear the air.

2. Labour hastily reverses 10 years of policy on immigration and calls for an end to free movement of Labour from inside Europe, finding itself advocating a "hard Brexit" by default. Despite widespread calls for Jeremy Corbyn to resign, the move – just – enables him to survive to fight the election as leader.

3. May films a party political broadcast for the election centering around her attendance at her local church in Maidenhead, St, Andrew's Sonning. Echoing a Christian Today headline from 2016, the Daily Mail heralds the brilliance of this "quiet Christian from Middle England".

4. The Tories romp home with a majority of almost 100. The Liberal Democrats increase their share to just more than 50 seats, in their biggest revival since the leadership of Charles Kennedy as the third party become seen as the standard-bearers of the Remain cause.

5. Clive Lewis, a former army reservist who served in Afghanistan and is little-known by the public at large, replaces Corbyn, becoming Labour's first black leader.

6. Despite a modest revival in the polls for Labour, there are increasing calls among Liberal and Labour grandees like Paddy Ashdown and Peter Mandelson for a "progressive alliance" between pro-Europeans in Labour, and the Lib Dems. David Miliband prepares to move back to London to head up the new merger.

7. Prince Charles continues to win over the hearts of those Monarchists who admire the Queen but were sceptical of the heir to the throne's ability to understand the role, with increasingly strong statements about persecuted Christians around the world.

8. Michael Gove is appointed editor of The Times.

9. In the US, Trump enacts his ban on Muslims entering the US but, after widespread mass protests led by the Jewish community, the measure is abandoned by the end of the year.

10. Under pressure from Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump also makes good on his controversial promise to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, infuriating Palestinians and apparently kicking into the long grass any hopes for the already dormant peace process.

11. At home, Trump appeases the other side of a bitterly divided nation by keeping Obamacare. But he angers liberals by abolishing the Johnson Amendment which prevents churches and other religious bodies from campaigning politically.

12. On climate change, the new President horrifies the green lobby and much of the public by rolling back President Obama's Clean Power Plan to enact major cuts to carbon emissions.

13. Congressman Keith Ellison, who was an early backer of Bernie Sanders and has represented the Minnesota's 5th congressional district since 2007, becomes chairman of the Democratic National Convention.

14. Obama shuns the multi-million dollar speaking circuit and a range of non-executive directorships to write a book on the good that can be done from the Oval Office, before taking on a range of charity roles. There are calls for him to act as a peace-broker in the increasingly troubled Middle East.

15. As evangelicals grow increasingly divided about whether they made a mistake in backing Trump, the President begins to attend church every Sunday for the first time in his life.