2023 is over, let it go, as Millicent Martin used to sing. I would have to describe it as my annus horribilis. The most significant event in this year, or any other year, was the loss of Aileen on January 13. a few months after being diagnosed with Type 4 cancer. She had been stoic to the very end. For the family, it was heartbreaking to see her daily decline and eventual admission to the hospice when her medication and functions could no longer be supported at home. We greatly appreciated the kindness from the wider family, friends and colleagues and the funeral reminded us of the selfless devotion that she had shown to them all. So many people highlighted her sense of humour and her unassuming knowledge of so many issues that she dispensed with a modesty that defined her personality.
The early part of the year was taken up closing her accounts and dealing with companies and financial institutions that seemed determined to make logging off a perpetual exercise in beating their logarithms. It was easier in the analogue days when phone calls and visits to local branch offices were possible. The honourable exceptions to this were the Council, Nationwide Building Society and, surprisingly, the Department of Works and Pensions.
As the year progressed, I tried to re-enter the wider world that I had abandoned whilst visiting and caring for Aileen over the previous 20 weeks. It was not a happy return. Apart from the yawning rise in the cost of living, my energy provider increased my bills because I had the heating on full and there was a constant stream of family visitors during Aileen's illness. They wouldn't take this into account so I switched and saved £700. I soon discovered that the UK was in meltdown and the world was out of order.
The full impact of Brexit and the disastrous management of the Covid pandemic confirmed that the UK government was corrupt, self-absorbed and remorseless. It was incapable of managing the NHS, transport, public services, the economy, migration, housing, water companies, and the environment. It showed no inclination to take any remedial actions to prevent climate change. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government has imploded. It is evident that not only have the NHS, Education and Calmac Ferries collapsed but also local public services have been strangled. The SNP government has sought to stave off its dire performance blaming Westminster whilst contradicting the premise of devolution by centralising many services and obfuscating the poor performance of the services that it is now responsible for. We know that the UK government is broken, but that's no excuse for the Scottish Government to emulate Westminster.
On the worldwide stage, we had Putin continue his brutal assault on Ukraine, fired on by the declining support from the USA and Europe, the neutrality of China and the Brick countries and the inability of the UN to take stronger action without the backing of the security council that includes vetos from Russia and China. The Israeli - Gaza conflict exploded after the Hamas incursion killing 1200 people but the devastating response by Israel, killing over 20,000 Palestinians and reducing Gaza to rubble, exceeds any definition of a humanitarian defence. It has undermined international support for Israel in the long term as well as pushing the world nearer to a wider Middle East conflict. Elsewhere the conflicts in Yemen and Sudan continue, many African countries have given up on democracy, Argentina has elected a crazy populist as President and Donald Trump is still standing.
Even more important than all of these threats to humanity is the rolling danger of climate change that can be measured by 2023 having the fastest-ever increase in temperature and the Antarctic losing 1 million km2 of sea ice, the size of France and Germany combined. The floods, droughts, and fires with resultant famine, migration and conflict across the world are confirmation of the catastrophe ahead. Rishi Sunak confirmed his disinterest by giving the green light to further coal and oil extraction, refusing to provide support for insulation or funding for new green initiatives and having a carbon footprint that exceeds any rational justification. COP 28 in Dubai was an exercise in greenwashing when the oil-producing countries first refused and then recused an agreement for the phasing out of carbon fuels. 2023 is probably the most disastrous year for the world since 1939.
I have kept my peace by thinking of Aileen.
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