The arrival of a new year is a moment for reflection and renewal.
In the rear view mirror can be seen 12 months of political turmoil, a war in Ukraine and a nation grieving the Queen’s passing.
The road ahead will be no less challenging. Ukrainian resolve will be tested to the limit by Russia’s aggression.
More than ever we will need to stand firm in our support for President Volodymyr Zelensky and his people.
Closer to home, we begin 2023 facing further strike action by low-paid workers and under the gathering clouds of a recession.
Our public services are buckling under the consequences of years of Tory underfunding.
Households are worried about how they will put food on the table and pay their energy bills.
Few have faith in No10 to address the cost-of-living crisis, restore our schools and hospitals and help families weather the storm.
It is this country’s misfortune that we are lumbered with at least another year of a thread-bare administration that has neither the imagination nor the energy to tackle the problems facing us.
When it should be straining every sinew to resolve pay disputes, the Government has chosen antagonism and confrontation.
Yet there are reasons for optimism. Under Keir Starmer’s steady hand Labour looks more than ever like a government in waiting.
With Mark Drakeford in Wales, Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester and Sadiq Khan in London we have seen the difference Labour can make when in power.
There is the Coronation in May. Sport and music will lift our spirits whether it is the Women’s World Cup, Eurovision, the Grand National, the Premiership race or Glastonbury.
Leadership in Westminster may be in desperately short supply but in hard times
this country can draw on its abundance of kindness and compassion.
If we cannot turn to the Government for help in a crisis we must turn to each other.
The people who make this country great are those who look out for others, serve their communities and tend to their neighbours.
They are the reason we can look forward to the new year with hope and why a better future is possible.
