Normally, this is the time for a review of 2022, a kind of look back over the last 365 days and the highs and lows of the political year.
But do you really want to read that? I can barely bring myself to think about it, to be honest.
Total horror show. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Pele goes and dies. Icing on the cake, that was.
It’s all been a bit of a blur. It was July – JULY – when Boris Johnson finally packed his stuff. How long ago does that feel?
Before that we suffered through various by-elections, unlawful PPE, resignations including the, erm, tractor stuff.
Post-Johnson, we had Liz Truss for a few weeks, the economy exploded and we ended up with Hancock in the Jungle. He came third, which is all ye know on Earth and all ye need to know.
Really. As years go that was a bad one. Still, at least it’s gone now and we can look forward to the next 364 days.
I’ve given up on Western predictive science – no one really knows anything, as my gambling account shows (losses embarrassing, winnings negligible) so I am looking to the east instead. Chinesezodiac.org, to be precise.
They were right in 2022, the year of the tiger: “We will live in the thrall of this disruptive, feisty and impetuous, despotic feline.” Pretty much spot on. 1914 and 1938 were also tiger years and they were pretty eventful.
This year is the year of the rabbit, which is supposed to bring less anger and be a lot more relaxed. It also should be better financially although I’m not sure how that’s going to work.
Maybe the strikes will be resolved (I have to be careful here. Written about them twice in a row now and been advised that three strikes and I’m out.)
Energy prices are likely to rise in the spring and mortgages and food are not getting any cheaper.
Here is my one prediction for 2023: The Tories will lurch further to the right. Sounds obvious, but there are a couple of worrying signs meaning it may happen sooner rather than later. The first is the impossible popularity of Suella Braverman. To all right-thinking people, sending people to Rwanda is beyond inhumane.
But the High Court says it’s legal and lots of people seem to like it.
And they like the Home Secretary’s “tough talk”. She’s 25 points more popular than the Prime Minister, according to polling of Tory members.
The other problematic factor is the stirring of various right-wing parties.
Reform UK is starting to poll a little bit. Worrying for the Tories, frightening for the rest of us. A lurch to the right won’t just mean a continuation of the war on refugees. It will extend to working people – particularly those on strike – and the NHS.
The only way out of it, as far as I can see, is to make this an election year.
No signs of that for the moment, but we are only a few hours in. Meantimes, try and hang in there. However bad the next year is, it can’t be as bad as the monstrosity we’ve just made it through.
Keep going, be kind, and – according to Chinese superstition – mitigate bad luck by wearing red underwear and socks. Some of us do that already.
