Another Annus Horribilis

New Year’s Eve is a time for reflection as well as for welcoming in the new year. Well 2022 has been a pretty bad one globally with the war in Ukraine plus the consequential impact on fuel and power prices and global inflation. Let’s hope the war doesn’t escalate further. In the UK we’ve had poor standards of behaviour by our politicians, three Prime Ministers with the middle one demonstrating a shocking level of incompetence. We’re ending the year with widespread and disruptive strikes. A highlight was the wonderful win by the Lionesses in the Euros and the way they played and celebrated. A sad moment for me as a tennis fan was the final match of Roger Federer who retired. There were also the two amazing grand slam wins for the 36 year old Rafael Nadal, including his 14th French Open title! Thankfully the threat from Coronavirus reduced with the Omicron variant and better defences from the vaccines and life became more normal. We had our hottest heatwave ever and here there was only 1cm of rain in 10 weeks. 

I personally will remember 2022 most though for the celebrations of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and her wonderful sketch with Paddington, followed shortly after by her death at 96 years. I will always remember the scenes of public grief, the respect of the mourners in the longest queue to see her lying in state, her children then grandchildren watching over her coffin in Westminster Hall, then all the world leaders who showed their respect for her amazing leadership by attending the State Funeral. I laid flowers outside Sandringham and that sea of flowers and the messages of thanks will remain with me. I’d obviously never seen the proclamation of a new monarch, the whole process was quite a revelation and I’m looking forward to the Coronation in 2023. Let’s hope it’s a better year for all of us.