And to top it all the Queen is ill and Parfitt has died.

Even though my rational brain knows it really happened, every time I read about the election of that man, it feels like I'm reading the plot of a satirical novel. Part of me still can't believe it's true.

2016 has been a fantastic year. BREXIT, a successful Olympics and Donald Trump !

Yes, many well-known people have died, but people die all the time. Television has created these household names over 40+ years, so it's not surprising that, now they're older, they're dying off.

A great year !

Every year brings sadness for some and happiness for others, the political changes have shocked some, but instead of the doom mongers bringing the mood down, why not keep an open mind. Brexit is a new beginning, it may turn out to be the best decision we have made and we should all hope that in years to come we are successfully independent. Trump might be a disaster, but again we should hope he turns out to do good things. We have to wait and see.

Without optimism and an open mind all you get is misery, change can be scarey, but it can also be exciting. Bad things have happened, sadly a lot of people have left us this year, let's hope next year is a good one.

Yeah immigrant Mo Farah did fantastic in Rio.

I predicted this time next week you'll be whining about 2017.

Lets just cut to the chase. Brexit is potentially a disaster but at least we have some control of it. Over Trump we have none. Nothing to feel optimistic about with that.

Since the last post in this thread George Michael, Liz Smith, Richard Adams and Carrie Fisher have died.

2016 is shit. Can't we just forget it ever happened

Trump will be sworn in as president only 20 days into 2017- I doubt it will be any better, sadly.

We were okay until you started .........

Cilla Black, Leonard Nimoy, Omar Sharif, Val Doonican and BB King died in 2015. It's sad but tens of millions of people die in the world every year. Some famous people who mean a lot to many will die in 2017 too. If you react like that you are never going to enjoy any year!

As for politics - well people voted and the alternative to democracy is tyranny. So be grateful for having a vote - even if your side doesn't always win. People gave their lives so you could have that right - which is far more memorable in my eyes than writing a few good pop songs.

Neither side won.

Someone always wins - for once this year it wasn't Goldman Sachs.

No they don't. No one would win a nuclear war, for example.

I will take that choice over Remain, Billary and Corbyn any day.

Thankfully, the electorate of both the UK and the US share my views. Thank God for Democracy.

Is that the US electorate where 3 million more people voted for Clinton than Trump? If America was properly democrtic, Trump wouldn't have won.

Why bring Corbyn into it with those two others? He actually won this year. Again .

Whereas May wasn't voted in by anyone.

And Brexit had a smaller majority than Clinton had over Trump in the popular vote.

So if we're meant to accept that Brexit is the "will of the people", then surely we have to accept that President Clinton is the will of the American people too?

I think both the UK and US should split in half then we can see which half does better .

As long as it's done on the basis that people in the Brexit/Trump halves can't move to the other side when it turns to shit.

No need to pretend, it HAS been a fantastic year !

BREXIT, Trump, and of course the fact that Team GB did very well in the Olympics in Rio !

Oh, and I had a fantastic holiday in Malaysia, Cambodia, Australia and Majorca !

You see, that's what's meant by "glass half full" !

And Jeremy Corbyin got re-elected as Labour leader !

Now that does read like a Jeffrey Archer novel.

You'd think that only actors, singers and authors ever die. You do realise that everyone dies and there are millions more who've died this year? Just because they're not household names who live luxurious lifestyles doesn't mean they're not worthy.

That is the most sensible post I've read in days !

It's heartening to know that not everyone gets hysterical over "celebrity" deaths and there are rational intelligent people like you around on the forum to bring them down to earth.

Aren't there two member of Goldman-Sachs in Trump's cabinet, including their president Gary Cohn, who is now heading their NEC? pretty sure they won bigly.

I know we live in a post-fact World, but anyone that believes that Trump isn't a big winner for the elites is delusional, billionaires and Republican grandees abound.

We're a British forum mainly. I can live with the fact that calling Brexit a disaster for most of us is wrong, as it was the electoral decision of the country, yet all the Polls show many, many more people wanted Trump to lose in this country, the vocal people on here are massively in the minority.

Oh and people are allowed to mourn their heroes, and it's been a particularly bad year for them, in most people's opinion. People that police their reactions could be the one considered miserable for not celebrating life's that hugely influenced many people.

We don't choose our government on the basis of the popular vote either. Is the UK not a democracy as it also determines the winner based on who wins a plurality of the vote in 650 voting areas not who wins most votes nationwide.

Trump won under the rules set out in the US constitution - and therefore won perfectly democratically as did the 44 Presidents before him.