It's been a half decade of politics that no one could have predicted. I have had a front row seat, sometimes a backstage access all areas pass too.

Park for a minute the extraordinary rollercoaster of connected, mutating crises: the post-referendum SNP surge that did for Labour, led to both Jeremy Corbyn and a majority Tory government that in turn led to the EU referendum, and then Brexit, and then a minority Tory government that in turn there were not enough votes in parliament for an actual Brexit plan.

The currents were there from the beginning - a breakdown in trust in conventional political parties, scepticism about the media, social media creating silo-ised and atomised audiences speaking to themselves.

Politics became driven less by managerial competence and more by belief and betrayal.

All of this occurred in the context of the second half decade after the financial crisis. Incomes squeezed, insecure work, and then the public sector cuts designed to balance the government's books.


It was a potent brew. Into this mix throw two referenda and two general elections and almost constant crisis fever pitch. The essential ingredients of what was to come were all there in my first few months.

Image: Faisal revealed the possibility of a £45bn Brexit divorce bill, which was denied at the time

I interviewed then mayor of London Boris Johnson at his EU policy launch, on his decision to return to the Commons, and incredibly he went along with my live role play of EU membership re-negotiations with me pretending to be Angela Merkel and him pretending to be the prime minister.

Within weeks there were Tory defections to UKIP, by-elections, and a Scottish referendum that saw the impact of new forms of media, scepticism of the establishment, and generational splits.

Following the referendum loss with a conscious attempt to win the post referendum politics, I followed Nicola Sturgeon on her remarkable sell out tour, that showed the SNP wave about to shake politics and crush Scottish Labour.

That possibility was brilliantly marshalled by the Cameron Conservative campaign of 2015 in a way that Ed Miliband did not properly deal with.

Image: Faisal hosted one of the debates around the EU referendum with Kay Burley

It helped Cameron win Lib-Dem seats far away from the influence of Ms Sturgeon, and deliver an unlikely and historic Tory majority.

Briefly.

But it was a small majority. And the Cameron majority government was repeatedly pinned down by rebellion, failed to get its budgets through without major U-turns, and was the subject of detailed eurosceptics plotting over the terms of the Brexit referendum.

David Cameron's overconfidence about his ability to win with Project Fear tactics arose from the 2014 and 2015 ballot box wins, but they were to prove his eventual undoing.

There will be long books written about Brexit.

But with Sky News we were there when Michael Gove told the country we had "enough of experts", when David Cameron was laughed at for scaremongering, and then in the frenzied aftermath when a leading MP openly told me "there is no plan".

Image: Sky News was there when Michael Gove said the country had had enough of experts

But the Brexit negotiation and the lead up to the triggering of Article 50 were the most extraordinary time, where my basic assessment was that very senior people in and advising government simply did not understand what they were doing strategically.

I recall telling a top government adviser during the Tory conference 2016 that the UK was about to get the worst set of global headlines in our history, and that if his boss really wanted a "Global Britain" he had half an hour to meet them all to prevent serious damage to our global image.

I carried in my back pocket on the PM's plane an incredible memo from the Japanese government showing its critical fears about the Brexit negotiation, designed to shake things up ahead of Mrs May's G20 summit meeting.

In late 2016 I picked up news of a likely long transition period, denied at the time, and a £45bn Brexit divorce bill, also denied at the time.

I anticipated that the UK would end up with something like the customs union in my first Sky Views piece, because of manufacturing and Northern Ireland.

Image: Faisal interviewed Theresa May in the run up to the 2017 election alongside Jeremy Paxman

All were flamed as some sort of combination of fake news or Project Fear - all essentially correctly anticipated the path of the past three years. Particular thanks to the cabinet minister who rang up to tell me our Brexit Forensics series was "venal".

Too much has happened to do any justice to it in this piece.

But there have been dark moments.

Reporting on the Manchester bombing from Downing St and on Jo Cox's murder from the Vote Leave Bus was very difficult.

I fear politics has not learnt the lessons it needs to from the latter form of political terrorism.

Unnecessarily aggressive personalised attacks on our politicians demean and endanger the entire process.

Are some MPs incompetent, stupid, maddening, and disagreeable? Absolutely.

But having observed them as closely as anybody for half a decade, honestly every single one - all 650 - are voting the way they are voting, or arguing the way they do, because of their vision of what will make the country a better place.

Image: The weaponisation of betrayal politics is becoming 'deeply troubling'

They are not treasonous. There are no traitors. Full blooded disagreement and argument is a necessary feature of our politics.

The weaponisation of betrayal politics, however, is becoming deeply troubling. There are senior politicians who should stop playing with fire.



Lastly though - a thank you to you all, viewers, and readers. I have thrived on all the feedback, some of my best lines of questioning have emerged from you.

The lady at the Sturgeon rally who said of the the oil price slump deficit "we will find it within us", the Tory vote in Stockton when we'd been told the town was moving towards Corbyn a week before the election, the Stand Up Be Counted young voters who roasted David Cameron and Ed Miliband far more effectively than most journalists.

And Sky News will no doubt continue to serve up ever better political coverage with Beth Rigby, Jon, Tom, Rob, Lewis, Kate, Tamara and soon Sam Coates.

Farewell!