To say Christmas has been the most wonderful time of year would be a gross overstatement. Socially mixing and shopping in bustling towns followed by a pint or two in the pubs of Winchester and Salisbury was something I really missed.

On the couple of occasions I did utilise tier 2, it was a case of making the best of things rather than feeling a sense of festive joy. Out in Salisbury on the day before Christmas Eve, I did wonder how much more that town can take after Novichok and Covid-19, with Brexit waiting in the wings.

Hopefully resilience will see it through but opening the door to 2021 and having a look into what it will offer us, is a disturbing thought. Covid really is ramping up now for a winter burst and the chaos Brexit will bring will at best, set us back considerably. What worries me is the fact that people still seem to be prepared to blame anyone except the government for the chaos.

They (the government) wield so much power in the largest media outlets who in turn, are prepared to blame anyone who questions them for the madness that unfolds. At what point people realise what is going on, I just do not know? There is definitely a preference to be blissfully ignorant, which in a way I can understand. What you do not know, you do not worry about.

However, it is worse than that because the problem with the ignorant this time round, is that they have been mobilised by Brexit. They have gone along with it to make themselves look clever and politically astute. The lies of Brexit have legitimised the ignorant and moved them from out of the margins where they once sat as the bitter and twisted local pub bullshitter. Question them and they get angry and indignant.

2021 brings hope with a vaccine and the chaos surrounding Brexit may mean the people who drove the Brexit bus, finally crash. It could be that a new dawn will come after the darkest hour. I have long accepted British populism will have to reach its lowest point before it caves in and 2021 might be that time.

So, I open the door to 2021 with both hope and fear for what it will deliver.