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It's Christmas. Or is that to come? It certainly is for the newsagents because we here love nothing more than an election.

Yes, you heard that right at the back.

An election. And when all the dryers dust, horrible turkey, Christmas puddings and minced pies have

been gorged and the mulled wine imbibed, we will at least have the solace of looking ahead to a new year,

which is absolutely election-tastic. 2024 will see more democracy, warts and all, imperfections and all, than any other year

in human history.

There will be elections in over 50 countries, 75% of the democracies around the world,

with more than 2 billion people in places as distant as the United States, India, Indonesia, Mexico,

South Africa, all heading to the polls. It's an accident of the calendar. We've never seen

anything quite like it. There are concerns about it playing into global political instability,

the merry-go-round of leaders changing at a time when many of our strongest

democracies have never felt so fragile. We in the UK will almost certainly be voting ourselves,

but of course that is our bread and butter, and spoilers, we will be doing a lot of it next year.

So on this, the last main edition of the show for 2023, indulge us as we look ahead to what's to come in 2024 around

the rest of the world. In each place what's at stake, what might change why it matters to us. It's

Lewis here. Welcome to the newsagents. The newsagents. Right, before we get to that catalogue of what's to come, a little bit on what's just passed,

you will remember that we covered extensively on the show.

Rishi Sunak's proposed changes to immigration rules, what a week or so ago,

hailed at the time by the man himself in the House of Commons as some of the toughest ever.

Mr Speaker, I said enough is enough and I mean it.

...