Image via zeeky.net.

It’s been a hell of a year, people. But while touched upon by the mainstream UK media in between the wars, famines, natural disasters and revelations that the media are as corrupt as financiers, one story of burgeoning evil eluded close attention.

The death of North Korean leader Kim-Jung Il in December 2011. Original Image: Reuters via Daylife.

In September, news of a seal pup that had been shunned by it’s family and friends due to its ginger hue was carried by one of England’s posher tabloids. It was too young to hunt and the fact that it had to be rescued by a Russian wildlife photographer before it starved to death assisted in it becoming something of an internet sensation.

Politicians learned what ‘normal’ people think when they hear their elected representatives start talking about deprived communities when London suffered five nights of rioting, arson and looting between 6th and 10th August. Sporadic violence also broke out across a number of other UK cities. Original Image via photoshoplooter.

But what happened to said seal after the furore had died down? Did it go about it’s business, growing into a cute, cuddly and most importantly, woolly screensaver option with a penchant for being photographed with small children? Did it land it’s own reality TV show, where viewers could follow her adventures around the Russian aquarium she was bankrolling by merely being there?

Police & bailiffs spent September battling residents and activists at the Dale Farm travellers site. Original Image: REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett.

No. In a manner befitting the insanity of the past twelve months, that seal grew up to be a harbinger of ginger doom. Study these photographs of some of the year’s biggest media events and you will see a sinister coincidence that remains to this day, totally overlooked by the mainstream media. This animal’s presence at all these locations around the time of extreme negative energy bursts clearly indicates a malevolent force at work. One we are ill-equipped to deal with.

Former News Of The World editor Rebeckah Brooks gave evidence in the Leveson enquiry. The enquiry is examining evidence of  phone tapping and use of private investigators by tabloid newspapers and led to publishers News International closing down the former Sunday bestseller. Image: Getty Images.

Alternatively it could indicate that someone got bored on Boxing Day afternoon and fancied a bit of phunky photoshop manipulation. Whatever rings your bell.