It’s fair to say that 2011 has been something of a global cluster-fuddle. If you’re a murderous Arab dictator, a Greek civil servant or a London student, it’s been a total mare. For Paul Mason, however, it has been a year to celebrate. As others have struggled to make sense of the global upheavals, the Newsnight economics editor has communed with protesters at Tahrir Square, smelt the tear gas in Athens, debated situationist theory at Occupy. He has become the Robert Peston of revolution.

It was his blog post, 20 Reasons Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere, that set the tone. Written one night in February as an attempt to link all the upheaval, it went viral. It has been retweeted hundreds of thousands of times, studied and critiqued by protesters and remains required reading.

Since then, Mason has stood on the BBC picket line during the pensions walk-out, sold out literary festivals, and even been insulted by Nicolas Sarkozy at the G20, for daring to ask (in French) whether he intended to help install any more unelected leaders in European democracies.

Read the full article in the London Evening Standard