The year is only a week old but already there is an intriguing three-way byelection and a brewing row over the retention of control orders.
Michael White is in the constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth where the Labour MP was ousted by the courts after his team produced campaign literature described as "dishonest". Labour are favourites to hang on to the seat but the Liberal Democrats have been campaigning hard.
Meanwhile, the government continues to review the policy on control orders. The Liberal Democrats have pledged to scrap them and David Cameron has promised to reform them - but are the moral judgements on detention without trial turning out to be easier in opposition than in government?
Hugh Muir, Natalie Hanman and Rafael Behr discuss all this and they pick their people to watch in 2011.
Leave your thoughts below and tell us which political figures we should be looking out for this year.
