2020 has followed much of 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plus we can\u2019t forget something that started in 2019 in China – Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here in the UK, we seem to have made a complete hash of it, but what can you expect from the country that brought you Brexit? Britain is particularly great at shooting itself in the foot. Voting to leave the UK, failing to shut down quickly enough, failing to wear masks, and seemingly creating or at least helping to spread the new Covid variant. We\u2019ve done a great job of showing we can\u2019t sort ourselves out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thankfully, this time around the change in president (in the US of A) is from the one many have named \u201c45\u201d to avoid using his name and giving him legitimacy, to Joe Biden, who immediately appears more \u201cnormal\u201d. At least he is not focused on \u201cfake news\u201d or disrupting the world. Joe seems to be more about bringing people together. A total turnaround from what the world has experienced during the last four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We voted to leave Europe, and now it\u2019s actually happening. The \u201coven ready\u201d deal wasn\u2019t quite that, though somehow Boris has managed to get something in place. I\u2019ve no idea if it will be enough to save the UK businesses that I know are looking at what business they will still manage to run in this new world of the UK outside of the EU. Time will tell and I hope it will work, but I fear the British public\u2019s choice was so ill-informed and we\u2019ll never quite manage to be the Great nation we once were. Early analysis suggests that services, which makes up most of what Britain sells abroad to the EU will not be as easy or successful. What is still worrying is the noise that rumbles about whether Ireland will reunite, and if that does, it opens the doors for Scotland and possibly Wales to push for independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deaths this year have almost reached 2016 levels. Sean Connery, Derek Fowlds (Basil Brush and yes Minister), Terry Jones, Nicholas Parsons (Just a Minute will never be the same again), Kirk Douglas, John Shrapnel, Max von Sydow, Bill Withers, Honor Blackman, Sir Stirling Moss, Little Richard, Vera Lynn, Ennis Morrison\u2019s, Chadwick Boseman, Diana Rigg, Eddie Van Haley, John Sessions, Geoffrey Palmer, Dave Prowse, and Barbara Windsor.
And my Mum. 19th November 2020 will be forever etched in our family memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2020 ends with Covid throwing another spanner in the works with a new variant that spreads faster, so many of us in the UK are in Tier 4 – and if it continues, possibly a Tier 5 might have to be developed. I feel that 2021 will continue to be challenging with respect to the ongoing Brexit and COVID-19 situations, but there\u2019s more to 2021 than that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
2021 holds a lot of promise, some challenges for sure, but like many people around the world, I\u2019m positive it can only get better. When compared to the sh*tshow that 2020 has been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fingers crossed 2021 delivers on all the hopes and dreams. And on that note there are some positives to watch for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And these are just some of the items to which we can look forward in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Make 2021 your positive year.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Happy New Year<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My all too brief summary of 2020 and thoughts for 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,26,19,31,24,13,1],"tags":[33,21,32,30,22],"class_list":["post-362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brexit","category-community","category-consideration","category-family","category-history","category-safety","category-uncategorised","tag-bereavement","tag-brexit","tag-death","tag-family","tag-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmpaterson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmpaterson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmpaterson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmpaterson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmpaterson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmpaterson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":367,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmpaterson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions\/367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmpaterson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmpaterson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmpaterson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}