Being honest, all I am able to offer by way of a seasonal felicitation is the hope that 2022 is no more than half as bad as I anticipate. If it turns out as I expect then many of us will be looking back with nostalgic fondness at the last couple of years. It would be foolish to make specific or detailed predictions. Things are far too volatile for that to be sensible. But there are some general points that can be made with a degree of confidence.
The pandemic will persist. New variants of the virus will appear more frequently. Some of those variants will pose particular threats. There is a strong possibility that one variant might be a real killer. That the pandemic will persist is as close to being a certainty as makes no difference. In principle, it is possible to eradicate a virus within a closed population. In practice, this would require an isolation regime far more rigorous than either governments or people are prepared to undertake. Where there is inadequate isolation there is transmission. Where there is transmission there is mutation. Where there is mutation there is danger.
The misery caused by Covid and the precautions that must be implemented, however inadequate, will be massively aggravated by the consequences of Brexit. The worst is still to come. This too is as certain as it needs to be to make welcoming the new year a bit of a sick joke.
On the constitutional issue, it will become clear that there is to be no free and fair referendum in the lifetime of this parliament. It is entirely possible that there will be no referendum at all and thus no progress towards restoring Scotland’s independence. There is almost no possibility of a referendum in the form that is required. If there is a referendum it will either be on terms dictated by the British state or it will be some kind of non-binding consultative exercise. No more than an opinion poll. Totally inconclusive.
I reckon that’s enough to be going on with. If you are sad enough to feel you must respond to this rather than have a party of some sort, please remember that I don’t do faith.
On a personal note, the new year brings the need to make a decision regarding the future of this site. The annual subscription is due mid-January. I have three options. I can pay the fee and keep things going as they are. (This is NOT a plea for donations. While I am very grateful to those who chip in a few quid here and there, I knew what I was getting into when I launched the blog. I am quite prepared to cover all costs if need be.)
The second option is to move to a site hosted on my own web space. I already have a hosting account and am perfectly capable of setting up and administering a WordPress site. Well! Maybe not “perfectly” capable. I’m a bit rusty and not as quick to learn as I once was. This option means lower cost but more work. I’m not keen on work. More accurately, I’m far from keen on having to work. I find I am easily stressed and more affected by it than when I was younger. But the option is there. And it is what I had been planning. Although “planning” may be too grand a word. Better to say “intending”. Though now I come to write it that term also seems a bit strong.
The final option is to pack it in completely. And I have to say that this is the option to which I am increasingly drawn. The problem is that I don’t know what else I could do. I’m sure I would find something. But I have been so preoccupied with the constitutional issue for the last decade that walking away from it won’t be easy.
Anyway! That’s my dilemma. If it’s the worst problem to confront me in the coming months then I shall count myself lucky. May you all be just as fortunate.
Peter A Bell 
Wishing you all the best for 2022 and many thanks for all your articles over the past year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I very much hope you won’t pack it in. Whilst inspiration for new pertinent articles may be increasingly difficult to find as the independence situation stagnates those you do write are invariably thought-provoking if not always agreeable.
Most recently your analysis of the gender squabble, with the analogy of redheads, set out the situation with uncommon clarity.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the kind comments. Have the best possible 2022.
LikeLike
You should check this out Peter, it’s completely FREE, including sending emails 😉 https://substack.com/ All the best for 2022.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Coincidentally, I just started an account there. Thought it would be a useful thing to supplement the blogsite. Let’s see how that works out.
All the best to you and yours.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy New Year Peter – I’d hate you to stop contributing to the constitutional debate & your writing is so eloquent.
LikeLiked by 1 person
All the best to you and yours, Geoff. It’s good to have somebody around who doesn’t take it all too personally.
LikeLike
Extract: “The final option is to pack it in completely. And I have to say that this is the option to which I am increasingly drawn.”
Que sera #1… if you decide on that route, Peter, may I suggest that before the mid-January renewal falls due – you should post an analysis from your perspective of the last 10 years, what worked (if anything) and of what/who failed.
And just before you tell me to f-off, here is why I make that request,no mattter how negative it may appear – if/when the current generation’s attempts to regain Scotland’s independence fail, there are lessons to be learned as to why There always vital lessons to be learned from failure, ones which future generations should hear.
I believe you have a contribution to make, indeed I would even go as far as to suggest you have a responsibility to offer your, and very much your own, analysis of the reasons for such failure.
Que sera #2 …if you decide on an alternative to departure … hope to hear from you again soon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
To be clear, Mike, I’m not saying you shouldn’t “f-off”. But you make some good points. Have a guid 2022, my friend! At least insofar as such a thing may be possible.
LikeLike
Felicitous New Year to you and keep it going please. There are fewer and fewer places telling it as it is.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s a bit of a gap in the market for blogs really.
There’s pro-Alba or anti-Sturgeon blogs. There’s even pro-SNP blogs. And the MSM either “holds the government to account”, or is anti-SNP depending on how you view it, but is according to most, anti-Indy.
(resubmitting this, wordpress does strange things on my old XP)
So what about a pro-Indy blog that holds the Scot Gov and even Scot Parl to account? Being, dare I say, critical, but not for the sake of being a Sturgeon hater or an SNP hater, or a GRA hater. Just, plain, being critical, of, the, Scottish Government and its Ministers. For instance, what do you really think about this survey asking questions of underage 14 year olds about their anal sex acitivities in a way that they can actually be identified publicly?
A main reason I want Independence is so that all the decisions that affect Scotland are made in Scotland, including who to delegate some of those decisions to, such as the EU, EFTA and or the EEA. Or a Nordic Council. A decision made in Scotland. And I have reverted to NOT defending decisions of ScotGov in case it weakens the SNP, the main Indy party. I act as though we’re already independent and I can put aside any notion of party politics about which I never really cared anyway, and focus on issues. What do I think of the issue regardless of party?
And I find that gets empathy from unionists, and even at times, disagreements about issues, rather than the Indy divide. And considering that about 92% of the voters of Scotland actually support Holyrood and devolution, it’s very fertile ground for helping people to think “So, I support Devolution, but don’t care about any political party, what would it be like if Scotland had control over all the powers?”.
LikeLiked by 3 people