Kishwar Desai | After a Christmas of misery, looking to New Year with disruptions

After a rather gloomy Christmas where strikes where the dominating theme, we are now reeling into a New Year where further disruptions can be expected. Looking back it has been a difficult year, mainly because politicians decided to behave badly, and now the only messiah who looms on the horizon is Keir Starmer. Will 2023 be the year when the country finally switches from the Tories back to Labour? It certainly looks like it — as Starmer and Labour maintain their lead in the opinion polls.

This will be remembered at the Christmas of misery and discontent. The atmosphere is reminiscent of the severe winter forty odd years ago when we had The Winter of Discontent. Every trade union you could think of was on strike including, most memorably, grave diggers in many towns. It is difficult to imagine how we got through it — but now looking back there is much to be said about being stoic and steadfast. These British qualities can be seen in abundance in Starmer who grew up in a very deprived household. Yet, as he reminisced recently, it was not that they felt poor, it was simply the way things were. The deprivation and his mother’s chronic illness made him a stronger person with empathy. If he is found “boring” by many — it is precisely the kind of candidate many feel he country needs going into the 2024 election, as nothing will probably change in the coming months.

So history is repeating itself. The Twelve Days of Christmas will be known for the days when one or more unions are on strike. Rail transport has been off and on out on strike over the whole of last year. It is like during the pandemic, all over again. Then we did not wish to travel. Now we cannot. But much more serious is the strike of nurses. For the first time in over hundred years, nurses are on strike. They battled at their best during Covid but now they are exhausted and fed up. Add to that ambulance drivers and you know it would be a serious error this Christmas to get inebriated and fall flat on your face.

Again like the story forty plus years ago, we have inflation and a new Prime Minister who has to face the music. In 1979 it was Jim Callaghan, normally a friend of trade unions. But he was helpless as the kitty was empty and he could not match the demands of the unions. This time is a young Prime Minister, much heralded as the first of Indian ancestry. But he has also an empty treasury and an increasingly restless party — whose main hope is to somehow stop the Starter express from rolling in. They will make all attempts to discredit him, but their problem is that the country does not believe in them anymore.

Of course, there are some changes to celebrate: while the Christmas broadcast will no longer have the familiar face and voice of Her Majesty the Queen, our new king has already appeared on our currency notes and, in the coming year, will be everywhere on our stamps and coins. Charles the Third will be coronated in the New Year when the whole world will be watching this rare event, the first time in the new Millennium. A King has not been on the throne in 70 years and a Charles in four centuries. So we look forward to the coronation!

But, unfortunately, there have been other disappointments. This year we were hoping to bring the Football World Cup home after 56 years. Alas that was not to be. England lost against the Auld Enemy France with the captain missing a simple penalty kick. Just the sort of thing which happens when Bad Luck visits. However, there has been much to cheer in cricket after all the failures of the last few years. England did defeat Pakistan with help of a young bowler of Pakistani roots. So we can celebrate not just a Prime Minister of Indian origin but a winning cricketer of Pakistani origin.

But this year we did achieve a couple of firsts in British history: We had three Prime Ministers in the space of six months including one who served for fewer than fifty days. Of course, one must never guess the future but let us hope we do not face another change of Prime Minister within the seven days left in 2022. Or in the New Year, as we crave stability. That can be the best gift of 2023.

Happy 2023 to all of you from all Londoners.