Christmas 2023

It’s our fun and fiendish Quiz of the Year

Our chief political commentator John Rentoul is also the office quiz whizz. We asked John to compile a challenging set of festive brainteasers to test your general knowledge and see how much attention you’ve been paying to events this year. Tap on the red bar at the end of every section to reveal the correct answers Good luck!

Wednesday 27 December 2023 13:50 GMT
(Getty)

Scroll to the end of the quiz for a full list of all the answers

Pictures throughout the quiz are arranged from left to right with A and B on the top row and C and D on the bottom

Round one: The year in politics

1. Which cabinet minister was sacked in January?

A) Gavin Williamson

B) Nadhim Zahawi

C) Dominic Raab

D) Suella Braverman


2. Who was the first secretary of state for energy security and net zero when the department was created in February?

(Getty/PA)

A) Claire Coutinho

B) Grant Shapps

C) Lucy Frazer

D) Michelle Donelan


3. Which law came into effect in England and Wales on 27 February?

A) Age of marriage raised to 18

B) BSL recognised as a language

C) E-scooters banned

D) Voters required to show ID


4. Which party lost all its councillors in the local elections in May?

A) Reclaim

B) Ukip

C) Social Democratic Party

D) Reform UK


5. Which party won the Uxbridge and Ruislip by-election in July?

A) Labour

B) Conservative

C) Lib Dem

D) Monster Raving Loony


6. Who said in August: “We won’t be doing that. It’s a denial. It’s not a non-denial, it’s just a denial.”

A) Liz Truss about running for leader again

B) Jeremy Hunt about tax rises

C) Rachel Reeves about tax rises

D) Jeremy Corbyn about running to be London mayor


7. Which former MP will take part in The Traitors US, as announced in September?

(Getty)

A) John Bercow

B) Nadine Dorries

C) Boris Johnson

D) Matt Hancock


8. What was Yaz Ashmawi, who poured glitter over Keir Starmer as he began his conference speech in Liverpool, protesting about?

A) North Sea oil and gas

B) Proportional representation

C) Palestine

D) Deforestation


9. Lisa Cameron MP defected to the Conservatives in October from which party?

A) Scottish National Party

B) Democratic Unionist Party

C) Liberal Democrats

D) Plaid Cymru


10. Who wrote in November: “Our deal was no mere promise over dinner, to be discarded when convenient and denied when challenged.”

A) Gordon Brown

B) Nadine Dorries

C) Kwasi Kwarteng

D) Suella Braverman

Tap here for answers


Round two: World leaders

1. Which prime minister who once worked in the Cabinet Office under Tony Blair announced in January that she was stepping down?

(Getty)

A) Sanna Marin of Finland

B) Magdalena Andersson of Sweden

C) Natalia Gavrilita of Moldova

D) Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand


2. This year’s G7 summit was held in May in:

A) Japan

B) UK

C) Germany

D) France


3. Which prime minister quit in June to work for Tony Blair’s institute?

A) Magdalena Andersson of Sweden

B) Sanna Marin of Finland

C) Erna Solberg of Norway

D) Mette Frederiksen of Denmark


4. Which prime minister was thought in September to be preparing to change the official name of his country to Bharat?

(Getty)

A) Fumio Kishida of Japan

B) Narendra Modi of India

C) Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar of Pakistan

D) Srettha Thavisin of Thailand


5. What was made a permanent member of the G20 in September?

A) European Union

B) Soviet Union

C) Union of South Africa

D) African Union


6. Which world leader went to school with Matthew Perry, who died in October?

A) Joe Biden

B) Justin Trudeau

C) Shinzo Abe

D) Benazir Bhutto


7. Who said in November: “My responsibility is to make this relationship rational and manageable, so it doesn’t result in conflict. That’s what I’m all about.”

A) Rishi Sunak about the EU

B) Joe Biden about China

C) Vladimir Putin about Ukraine

D) Benjamin Netanyahu about Hamas


8. Who became president in November after brandishing a chainsaw during the election campaign?

(Getty)

A) Mario Abdo Benitez of Paraguay

B) Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso

C) Javier Milei of Argentina

D) Jakov Milatović of Montenegro


9. Where did Rishi Sunak hold his global summit on artificial intelligence in November?

A) MI6 HQ

B) Cabinet War Rooms

C) Bletchley Park

D) Science Museum


10. Which country hosted the Cop28 climate summit meeting in December?

A) Egypt

B) United Arab Emirates

C) Saudi Arabia

D) Bahrain

Tap here for answers


Round three: Words

1. Droid, short for android, was first used in

A) 1922

B) 1932

C) 1942

D) 1952


2. Nous, meaning cleverness, comes from

A) Polari

B) Greek

C) Norse

D) Finnish


3. What Japanese word imported into English literally means “empty orchestra”?

(Getty)

A) Karate

B) Tsunami

C) Karaoke

D) Haiku


4. Glossophobia is a fear of

A) Shiny surfaces

B) Large numbers

C) Sharp points

D) Public speaking


5. Tulip is originally from

A) French

B) Turkish

C) Hindi

D) Dutch


6. Sayonara means goodbye in

A) Tamil

B) Spanish

C) Portuguese

D) Japanese


7. Jargon originally meant birds’ chatter in

A) French

B) German

C) Danish

D) Russian


8. Devil comes from Greek diabolos, which originally meant

(Musee des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg)

A) Horned goat

B) Juggler

C) Angel

D) Slanderer


9. Nostalgia originally meant

A) Lovesickness

B) Conservatism

C) Homesickness

D) Dereliction


10. Charlatan comes from the word for “quack” in

A) Gaelic

B) Arabic

C) Italian

D) Hindi

Tap here for answers


Round four: Wrong answers I

Tim Carter’s weekly News Penguin quizzes, which started during lockdown, are a delight. Follow him on Twitter: @forwardnotback. Here are 10 questions he asked, to which the most popular answer was an incorrect one – so go carefully now.

1. Launched in 1962, Golden Wonder’s first ever flavoured crisp was which flavour?

A) Cheese and onion

B) Salt and vinegar

C) Ready salted

D) Beef and tomato


2. In the Harry Potter stories, what fruit needed to be tickled in order to enter the kitchen at Hogwarts?

A) Apple

B) Plum

C) Orange

D) Pear


3. Sandie Shaw won the Eurovision Song Contest final singing “Puppet on a String” in which city?

(Getty)

A) Stockholm

B) Berlin

C) Vienna

D) Copenhagen


4. Released in July 1993, what was the first Take That single to reach number one in the UK singles chart?

A) “Everything Changes”

B) “Pray”

C) “Relight My Fire”

D) “How Deep Is Your Love”


5. Which area became the UK’s first National Park in April 1951?

(iStock)

A) Snowdonia

B) Dartmoor

C) Peak District

D) Lake District


6. Who is featured on the reverse of the current Bank of England £20 note?

(Getty/iStock)

A) Jane Austen

B) Winston Churchill

C) Alan Turing

D) JMW Turner


7. In the nursery rhyme, “Sing a Song of Sixpence”, the maid was in the:

A) Kitchen

B) Garden

C) Parlour

D) Church yard


8. In Anne of Green Gables, Anne is sent to live with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert in the fictional town of Avonlea in which Canadian province?

A) Prince Edward Island

B) New Brunswick

C) British Columbia

D) Nova Scotia


9. Adeline Stephen was the birthname of which author?

A) Margaret Mitchell

B) Beatrix Potter

C) Daphne du Maurier

D) Virginia Woolf


10. Digory Kirke is a character from

A) Harry Potter

B) Chronicles of Narnia

C) Treasure Island

D) Moby Dick

Tap here for answers


Round five: Who asked the question? 

1. “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

A) Tony Blair, 2001

B) Bill Clinton, 1996

C) Ronald Reagan, 1980

D) Ted Heath, 1974


2. “How Soon is Now?”

A) Beyonce

B) The Smiths

C) Dua Lipa

D) Leonard Cohen


3. “What is to be done?”

(Getty)

A) Stalin

B) Hitler

C) Lenin

D) Mussolini


4. “Are Friends Electric?”

A) Tubeway Army

B) Kraftwerk

C) The Pogues

D) Kirsty MacColl


5. “Well he would, wouldn’t he?”

A) Mandy Rice-Davies

B) Jennifer Arcuri

C) Antonia de Sancha

D) Christine Keeler 


6. “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”

(Getty)

A) Whitney Houston

B) Celine Dion

C) Tina Turner

D) P!nk


7. “Who governs Britain?”

A) Margaret Thatcher, 1979

B) Theresa May, 2017

C) Ted Heath, 1974

D) Boris Johnson, 2019


8. “Are you thinking what we’re thinking?”

A) Ukip election slogan, 2015

B) Labour election slogan, 1997

C) Conservative election slogan, 2005

D) Lib Dem election slogan, 2010


9. “What About Us?”

A) Ed Sheeran

B) Billie Eilish

C) Adele

D) P!nk


10. “A new dawn has broken, has it not?”

(Getty)

A) John Major, 1992

B) Tony Blair, 1997

C) David Cameron, 2010

D) Nick Clegg, 2010

Tap here for answers


Round six: Geography

1. Which country borders North Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan?

(Getty)

A) Tajikistan

B) Russia

C) China

D) Afghanistan


2. Dili is the capital of

A) Laos

B) Myanmar

C) Fiji

D) East Timor


3. How is the city of Christiania now known?

A) Gdansk

B) Lviv

C) Oslo

D) Copenhagen

4. In which English county is Alton Towers?

(AFP via Getty Images)

A) Warwickshire

B) Cheshire

C) Gloucestershire

D) Staffordshire


5. Which country is on the Equator?

A) Angola

B) Sri Lanka

C) Malaysia

D) Colombia


6. What does the K in Pakistan stand for?

A) Karachi

B) Kashmir

C) Khan

D) Koran


7. Hong Kong borders which Chinese province?

A) Fujian

B) Hainan

C) Jiangxi

D) Guangdong


8. What is the capital of Lithuania?

(Getty)

A) Tallinn

B) Riga

C) Vilnius

D) Tbilisi


9. Its people call their country Hrvatska; what do outsiders call it?

A) Croatia

B) Slovenia

C) Hungary

B) Albania


10. Which country was called Annam until 1945?

A) Jordan

B) Djibouti

C) Vietnam

D) Thailand

Tap here for answers


Round seven: Wrong answers II

Again, the most popular answer to each of these questions was wrong when they were asked on Twitter.

1. In the TV series Thunderbirds, which member of the Tracy family was the regular pilot of Thunderbird 4?

A) Gordon

B) Scott

C) Alan

D) Virgil


2. In the cartoon The Flintstones, what colour is Fred’s tie?

(Moviestore/Shutterstock)

A) Yellow

B) white

C) red

D) blue


3. Which country hosted the first official Fifa Women’s World Cup in 1991?

A) China

B) USA

C) Sweden

D) Brazil


4. What was the title of the 1960s Petula Clark hit written by Charlie Chaplin?

A) “Don’t Sleep in the Subway”

B) “Downtown”

C) “This Is My Song”

D) “You’re the One”


5. How many time zones are there in Canada?

A) One

B) Three

C) Six

D) Nine


6. Before meeting Popeye the Sailor, Olive Oyl was the childhood sweetheart of a lounge lizard who did as little work as possible and was always borrowing money, named:

A) Beefsteak

B) Muttonchops

C) Chickenlips

D) Hamgravy


7. In Pokemon, who is the male member of Team Rocket, who has purple hair and green eyes?

(Moviestore/Shutterstock)

A) James

B) George

C) Simon

D) Peter


8. In which year did the British Museum open its doors to the public?

A) 1640

B) 1759

C) 1829

D) 1901


9. The Powerpuff Girls live in the fictional city of

A) Townsville

B) Pinksville

C) Summerville

D) Bountyville


10. In the novel Little Women, who is the youngest of the March sisters?

(Sony/Kobal/Shutterstock)

A) Meg

B) Jo

C) Beth

D) Amy

Tap here for answers


Round eight: Culture, celebrity and sport

1. Which member of the England women’s football team has a degree in information management and business studies?

(Getty)

A) Beth Mead

B) Chloe Kelly

C) Mary Earps

D) Lauren James


2. What position does Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, play for the Kansas City Chiefs?

A) Quarterback

B) Tight end

C) Linebacker

D) Nose tackle


3. What does the GPT in ChatGPT stand for?

A) General Predictive Text

B) Generative Pre-trained Transformer

C) Gibberish Paragraphs Transformed

D) Gradient Programme Training


4. Who played Barbie in July’s blockbuster?

A) Margot Robbie

B) Gal Gadot

C) Hayley Atwell

D) Florence Pugh


5. Who is the voice of Spider-Man in Across the Spider-Verse?

A) Andrew Garfield

B) Shameik Moore

C) Tobey Maguire

D) Tom Holland


6. Who wrote: “There’s just as much truth in what I remember and how I remember it as there is in so-called objective facts”?

(Getty)

A) Boris Johnson

B) JK Rowling

C) Prince Harry

D) Britney Spears


7. What number is this year’s Godzilla film?

A) Minus One

B) Three

C) Five

D) Fifteen


8. Which band was originally called Smile?

(Getty)

A) Slade

B) The Rolling Stones

C) Blur

D) Queen


9. What was Barack Obama’s White House dog called?

A) Barney

B) Bo

C) Boris

D) Buddy


10. Who has Tintin as a middle name?

A) Greta Thunberg

B) Gwyneth Paltrow

C) Sean Bean

D) Elon Musk

Tap here for answers


Round nine: Months 

1. In which month in 1963 was “Oh What a Night!” by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons?

A) September

B) October

C) November

D) December


2. In which month is St George’s Day?

A) February

B) March

C) April

D) May


3. The skies of which month were sung about by the Jesus and Mary Chain?

(Ilpo Musto/Shutterstock)

A) April

B) May

C) June

D) July


4. In which month is St Andrew’s Day?

A) September

B) October

C) November

D) December


5. In which month did it rain, according to Guns N’ Roses?

(Guns N' Roses)

A) February

B) April

C) October

D) November


6. Which is the cruellest month, according to TS Eliot?

A) March

B) April

C) May

D) June


7. In which month is St David’s Day?

A) February

B) March

C) April

D) May


8. Which month was number one in 1975 for one-hit wonder Pilot?

(Getty)

A) January

B) February

C) March

D) April


9. In which month is St Patrick’s Day?

A) February

B) March

C) April

D) May


10. The hunt for which red month is the title of Tom Clancy’s 1984 novel?

A) July

B) August

C) September

D) October

Tap here for answers


Round 10: Song lyrics

1930s: “Where troubles melt like lemon drops away above the chimney tops”

A) “Strange Fruit” – Billie Holiday

B) “We’ll Meet Again” – Vera Lynn

C) “When You’re In Love” – Russ Columbo

D) “Over the Rainbow” – Judy Garland 


1940s: “Where the treetops glisten and children listen”

(Getty)

A) “White Cliffs of Dover” – Vera Lynn

B) “Dream a Little Dream of Me” – Doris Day

C) “White Christmas” – Bing Crosby

D) “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” – The Andrews Sisters


1950s: “When you hold my hand, I understand the magic that you do”

A) “Only You” – The Platters

B) “Love Me Tender” – Elvis Presley

C) “When I Fall In Love” – Nat King Cole

D) “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love)” – Ella Fitzgerald


1960s: “She’s often inclined to borrow somebody’s dreams till tomorrow”

A) “See Emily Play” – Pink Floyd

B) “Lazy Sunday” – Small Faces

C) “The First Cut Is the Deepest” – PP Arnold

D) “Homeward Bound” – Simon & Garfunkel 


1970s: “Pale blinds drawn all day”

A) “Sound and Vision” – David Bowie

B) “Tiny Dancer” – Elton John

C) “When I Need You” – Leo Sayer

D) “The Name Of The Game” – Abba


1980s: “Nobody knows about my man; they think he’s lost on some horizon”

A) “Walking On Sunshine” – Katrina and the Waves

B) “Morning Train (Nine to Five)” – Sheena Easton

C) “I Want You Back” – Bananarama

D) “The Man with the Child in His Eyes” – Kate Bush


1990s: “It’s written on the wind, it’s everywhere I go”

A) “I Try” – Macy Gray

B) “Think Twice” – Celine Dion

C) “Love Is All Around” – Wet Wet Wet

D) “Place Your Hands” – Reef


2000s: “Cities come and cities go just like the old empires”

A) “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’” – Scissor Sisters

B) “America” – Razorlight

C) “Sound of the Underground” – Girls Aloud

D) “Where Is the Love?” – Black Eyed Peas


2010s: “Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste”

A) “Sorry” – Justin Bieber

B) “7 rings” – Ariana Grande

C) “Perfect” – Ed Sheeran

D) “Someone Like You” – Adele


2020s: “In a whole other life, there was this boy that I knew”

(Getty)

A) “Is It Over Now?” (Taylor’s Version) – Taylor Swift

B) “Sweet Melody” – Little Mix

C) “SPACE MAN” – Sam Ryder

D) “I Do This All The Time” – Self Esteem 

Tap here for answers


Answers

Round 1

1. Nadhim Zahawi. 2. Grant Shapps. 3. Age of marriage raised to 18.4. Ukip.5. Conservative. 6. Rachel Reeves about tax rises. 7. John Bercow.8. Proportional representation. 9. Scottish National Party.10. Suella Braverman.

Round 2

1. Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand2. Japan3. Sanna Marin of Finland4. Narendra Modi of India5. The African Union6. Justin Trudeau7. Joe Biden about China8. Javier Milei of Argentina9. Bletchley Park10. United Arab Emirates

Round 3

1. 1952 2. Greek 3. Karaoke 4. Public speaking 5. Turkish 6. Japanese 7. French8. Slanderer9. Homesickness10. Italian

Round 4

1. Cheese and onion 2. Pear 3. Vienna4. “Pray” 5. Peak District 6. JMW Turner 7. Garden 8. Prince Edward Island 9. Virginia Woolf10. Chronicles of Narnia

Round 5

1. Ronald Reagan, 1980 2. The Smiths3. Lenin 4. Tubeway Army5. Mandy Rice-Davies6. Tina Turner7. Ted Heath, 19748. Conservative election slogan, 20059. P!nk10. Tony Blair, 1997

Round 6

1. China2. East Timor3. Oslo4. Staffordshire5. Colombia6. Kashmir7. Guangdong8. Vilnius9. Croatia10. Vietnam

Round 7

1. Gordon2. Blue 3. China4. “This Is My Song”5. Six6. Hamgravy 7. James8. 1759 9. Townsville10. Amy

Round 8

1. Mary Earps2. Tight end3. Generative Pre-trained Transformer4. Margot Robbie5. Shameik Moore6. Prince Harry7. Minus One8. Queen9. Bo10. Greta Thunberg

Round 9

1. December2. April 3. April4. November5. November6. April7. March8. January9. March10. October

Round 10

1930s: Over the Rainbow − Judy Garland1940s: White Christmas − Bing Crosby1950s: Only You − The Platters1960s: See Emily Play − Pink Floyd 1970s: Sound and Vision − David Bowie 1980s: The Man with the Child in His Eyes − Kate Bush1990s: Love Is All Around − Wet Wet Wet2000s: I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ − Scissor Sisters2010s: Someone Like You − Adele2020s: Sweet Melody − Little Mix

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