New Year, New Hopes or Same Old, Same Old...?

Every January brings, for some, a determination to do things in a better way. Sometimes this is symbolic rather than specific but what matters is the ideal of wanting to improve, at least somewhere.

Yet at the same time, there is often a feeling that no matter what we as individuals do, nothing really changes. In the United Kingdom at least, there is one new thing - a December general election resulted in a government that, for the first time in almost a decade, has a substantial majority in the House of Commons. Not only that but it also has a number of new members entering Parliament for the first time and on the face it, in tune with what the government wants to do.

Whether or not Prime Minister Johnson's government achieves things to the benefit of the country and the people remains to be seen but at least there is more than symbolism to the start of not only a new year but also a new decade. There is however (as we have pointed out before), much to be done.

One of those is a resolution to the situation of the latest tragedy of a shooting down of a civilian airliner. This has been brought into the public eye much more than previous incidents of the same kind but it raises an obvious question; can we travel safely? The answer is yes, we can. But much, much more simply has to be done to ensure that such actions do not happen.

Another is the decision of Prince Harry and his wife's desire to 'step back from front-line Royal duties'. It is probably a uniquely British thing but one that has ramifications if it is not done with common sense.

And it is that which we would like to see more of - the application of plain old-fashioned common sense returning to UK life.

Let us hope that common sense becomes the norm.