Ho Ho Ho!, well it looks like we made it through a year that will at least provide a lot of us with plenty of stories to tell our grandchildren for many years to come.

With Covid’s latest variant raging through the population we have at least been told that Christmas is safe which we should be grateful for, but what happens then? Just as hotels were gearing up for what they expected to be a packed house, Omicron has pulled the rug from under their feet and the recent announcement of a grant to assist them, in my view, helpful though it may be, just isn’t enough. In the New Year, I suspect we will see many establishments going bust and an increase in unemployment, which is not the best way to start 2022.

I know firsthand that the last grants handed out by the Government were meant to be the last as far as they were concerned, so the thought of being in the position where they have to deal with more will not sit well with Rishi Sunak and the economic longevity of the country but if, as predicted, we end up in another lockdown they may have no choice if they want to save the economy from long term devastation. With two years of this under our belts, it will almost certainly be the next generation who will end up footing the very long-term bill for this much as it was with the second world war.

While the uncertainty laid out before us is of little comfort we should at least try and look forward to the festive few days that lay ahead, which will no doubt offer up the opportunity to relax and forget the crisis that hangs over our planet, presents will be opened, wrapping paper will be ripped off by children with innocent enthusiasm, walking into the kitchen before lunchtime will enrol you into helping or getting out very quickly and many of us at some point will fall asleep in a chair!

Spare a thought for those who are on their own this Christmas, although, rather perversely, they are probably the safest of all of us. Happy Christmas.