How is everyone? Did we all pass through the eye of the needle on New Year’s Eve and emerge, broken and weary, but emerge nonetheless into 2021?

Actually, I can’t do 2020 again. I don’t know if any of us can. That wretched year is behind us, and surely only better times lie ahead? Only, ‘time’ is a human construct, and the virus doesn’t care for such things. Our vigilance mustn’t cease just because a 0 became a 1. It would be wonderful to think the New Year would mark a new state of being, but there’s still plenty of work to do and a fight to be had.

No one I know craves another lockdown, yet it’s surely on the horizon and until there are enough quantities of the vaccines, it will probably be the only way to halt the rapid spread of Covid-19. The UK is currently recording 50,000 new cases per day, a shocking statistic that reveals two things. Firstly, inconsistent rules and ignoring scientific advice on the part of the government leads us nowhere. Secondly, there are far too many people willing to ignore the rules, out of ignorance and stupidity.

Im a harsh critic of this Tory government and the past year hasn’t given me any reason to reassess my opinions, but I must mention yet again that the foolishness of the British public has contributed to the massive spike in cases. My own county of Essex has seen many cases, due to a desire to flout regulations and behave like nothing has changed. Needless to say, I’m not impressed.

If we want to save lives, we need a consistent, strict set of rules and an organised set of procedures for distributing the vaccines. At this point it’s a big ask to expect the Tories to pull off either, but at the very least we can encourage each other to follow the rules. We can push back against the spread of nonsense about the vaccines being dangerous. We all want normal service to resume right? Let’s work to make it happen, so that 2021 can be a better year than 2020.