Teen beauty spot drinkers are ramblers, not rebels
- Dave Burrows
Joy will be in short supply in 2012
Monday 2nd January 2012, 12:30PM GMT.
David Cameron delivers his New Year message
It is a time for a message of hope and cheer for the New Year as it unfolds into 2012.
David Cameron has not much in that way of things to offer. For many people it will, if anything, be worse than 2011.
The crisis in the eurozone is rumbling on. The economy continues to underperform, to put it at its very highest. Job losses are going to continue to feed through.
It will be, for all but the lucky and the very wealthy, a year of hardship and austerity, made all the harder because these days people find it difficult to lower their expectations and temper their aspirations. Foot on the housing ladder? Forget it. New car? People might spend money that they cannot afford to get that one.
Household bills and energy bills will continue to climb alarmingly. It is generally a time to tighten the belts.
Mr Cameron continues to be unchallenged politically, which is quite a trick. Labour has not got its act together. The Lib Dems do not really know what their role should be – supporting the government or opposing it?
But it would be all too gloomy to start the year on such a load of gloom and threats of bad tidings. We must at least try to have an optimistic outlook and at least there are some things to cling on to.
Two events in 2012 will, or should, bring much needed cheer to Britain. The Olympic Games are coming to these shores for the first time in over 60 years. That will be a great jamboree.
The same can be said for the Queen’s Diamond jubilee.
We wish you all a Happy New Year. But realistically joy is going to be in short supply.
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“It will be, for all but the lucky and the very wealthy, a year of hardship”.
Wasn’t it some of the very wealthy who got us into this mess in the first place and are now being given a soft ride by the government? I think this is best summed up by a protester in Athens :- “I vote. You vote. He votes. She votes. We Vote. They Steal!!!”
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We have twenty millionaires in the coalition government (including Nick Clegg) keep telling us how they understand our pain…
Q. where did the majority of their money come from?
A. Investments in the City’s financial Institutions.
As those same financial institutions caused this crisis its hardly surprising that this government keeps putting up smokescreens to blame Labour when they are actually a large part of the cause.
If you want proof that the rich are getting richer… Luxury car manufacturers (Bentley etc) are reporting unprecedented record orders while the rest of us tighten our belts.
But it seems the British electorate is just too stupid to realise what has been going on! …That David Cameron and Nick Clegg are such nice men!
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He conviently fogot to mention that Turkey is to receive another 899 million euros of aid in 2012 and Croatia,yet another Eastern European country eager to get it’s nose into the trough by joining the EU is being gifted 156 million and is being ‘helped to join’ by David Cameron
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I disagree. Whilst we have the Shropshire Star letters section, there will *always* be unbridled laughter.
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We are having a rubbish year already, ESA stopped and too ill to go on JSA so wheres the safety net for people there then? Not ill/sick enough for ESA too ill/sick for JSA where now then eh??? This government just has no idea. Maybe there should be an OU or NVQ course on how to become a PM or MP because theres no training, just jump in with both feet. Things are going to get worse for a lot of people.
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“It will be, for all but the lucky and the very wealthy, a year of hardship and austerity, made all the harder because these days people find it difficult to lower their expectations and temper their aspirations”
It will be a joyless year for people who are addicted to rampant consumerism and consequently are finding that they will have to sample a bit of cold turkey in 2012.
For those of us who are neither “lucky” nor “very wealthy”, but don’t overstretch our resources and take pleasure in simpler things, such as family, walks in the fresh air and creative pastimes, it will be business as usual.
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Absolutely. Those of us without debts and consumerist spending habits won’t really notice much.
And those who are having trouble finding a job should think about how to employ themselves. No doubt some will now be shouting “that’s easier said than done” – but we don’t live in easy times and we’ll all benefit in the long run if more people use their interests and skills in running small, creative, new businesses.
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The Christmas spend was better than expected, where did all those people get money from? We had to cut back as I daresay thousands of others did.
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