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Buck - 2011 a year of mixed blessings
Some years seem to pass without drama, others pack in every kind of turbulence. 2011 has been a bumper year, although its blessings have been mixed ones.
From the heady Arab spring to the slaughter on the streets of Syria, people have shown again their courage and demand for democracy, yet found their hopes thwarted or at least delayed.
At home this has been the year when the public service cuts really started to bite.
The Centre for Independent Living for disabled people closed, and care support removed from 3000 elderly and disabled people. Taxicards have been cut. Children's Centre work with isolated parents has been slashed.
Westminster Council's new West End parking charges have attracted almost universal condemnation with fears that they will cost thousands of jobs.
So, all in all, more cold draughts than sunshine and the wind is set to blow for a long while yet.
The time has come to face the fact that the government is now making things worse, not better- piling on the misery whilst adding to debt, not paying it off.
2011 was a year when the hopes of so many in the world were kindled but have not yet come to fruition, and where hard times have fallen on millions of our own families.
I am sure, with our collective wisdom and good will, we can do better than that next year.
But in the meantime, I wish every one of the readers of the Westminster Chronicle a Christmas season of joy and gladness. And they, after all, cost nothing.
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