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New Year 2010

Is it a sign of age, or perhaps of busy-ness, that Christmas and New Year, Remembrance Sunday, Burns Night, the Summer Solstice and one’s birthday all seem to come round quicker and quicker? Is it just nostalgia, or when I was a child, did the two weeks before Christmas really stretch out like an eternity? Even General Elections – which are separated by up to five years - seem to recur in the twinkling of an eye.

2009 – indeed a large part of the decade which we are now leaving behind with a sigh of relief- has been something of an Annus Horribilis. In a military area like this, and as we stand yet again down Wootton Bassett High Street for a Repatriation, and as we see yet another close shave terrorist attempt, and the threat of many more pending, who amongst us would not pause to ask “Is the World on 1/1/2010 really a better place than it was on 1/1/2000?” As we hear of redundancies and layoffs, of economic uncertainty, and service cuts and tax rises to come, we wonder “Has Boom and Bust really been abolished?” Are our services better? Are our streets safer or nicer places to be? Is our Global environment more secure? Is our political system still the finest in the world? Are we safer? Are we happier? Richer?” I fear that few of us would answer anything but “no” to those questions.

But was it not Confucius who said that the best view in the world was from the bottom of a ladder looking upwards? In other words, I suppose that the good news as we look forward into the New Year is that it can’t really be any worse than the last one. It’s all there to play for. And none of us –optimist or pessimist alike – should allow ourselves the indulgent luxury of predicting or worrying about the future. We can but stride out into it, doing our best, as well as hoping for the best. As King George VI so memorably said in his broadcast to the Nation at the outbreak of the Second World War: - “I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!”

So of course there are things to look forward to which we hope will make our world a better place. There’s the General Election which we hope will bring about a cleansing of the electoral and political system and lead to renewed faith in politics and our Parliamentary system. Many of us hope that it will also lead to a fresh Government of a bluer hue, a renewed economy without excessive pain, rebuilding of our broken society and so many other changes. All of those things are important. But far more important than any of that is what you and I and our friends and families and communities can do in the New Year. How can we work together better? How can we make this a better place, give our friends and neighbours a better life than last year? What can we do to help those less fortunate than ourselves? These are the questions which – if answered thoughtfully and correctly - can give us all hope for the future.

So in the words of the old Scottish song which my father used to insist on singing relentlessly and tunelessly every New Years Day: “A gude New Year tae one and all; and mony may ye see. And during all the year tae come, O happy may ye be!” Or roughly translated: A Good and prosperous and Happy New Year to you all.

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