At this time of year, all around the world, people are wishing other people happiness, in the form of Happy Christmas, Season’s Greetings, Happy New Year and similar across all beliefs and cultures. Perhaps a wish for 2026 is that genuine goodwill and kindness will be appreciated more widely and be taken into every day, and even leadership levels right up to national heads.
Is it appropriate to suggest that when so much goodwill for but a short season can be generated there is cause for hope and optimism? But unpalatable realities must be faced with honesty and through that honesty better choices, even if tough, can result. Then nettles and opportunities can be grasped, change fostered and prosperity improved.
2025 EXPOSED UNPALATABLE REALITIES
Some optimism that may have been possible in early 2025 has proved illusory as harsh realities have set in. For example, the evil of Putin simply grows as he pulverises Ukraine. Any illusion that a peace which is fair to Ukraine can be negotiated has evaporated, it being so obvious that, as he has pronounced publicly recently, his plan to expand the Russian empire to former glory remains the same, no matter who he has to murder; he made clear peace is only possible on his greedy inhumane terms.
Trump is only interested in commercial gain, primarily for self and his related interests, and doing deals where the USA wins. Ukraine, and its corpses, are but pawns for the USA to do a deal with Russia and Ukraine for the USA to extract profit. Trump says he and Putin are friends: is that because they share the same morality?
Trump, Putin and China’s Xi, believe in raw power and global values carry no weight. Nor do the rights of weaker people. Trump wants Greenland, and, perhaps rightly, is willing to flout international norms in his desire to neuter Venezuela which is a prime funnel for damaging drugs to the USA; or could his eye be on the considerable fossil fuel or mineral reserves of such countries?
Europe has to rearm itself urgently because Putin is actively destabilising the old alliances such as NATO with Trump’s connivance. Europe, including the UK, is going to have to pay a price for that.
And in the UK the only path to economic success is growth. The UK cannot afford the benefits and pension commitments it has and has to change. The Prime Minister knows all this and has said so, but for now the UK government does nothing about that. 2025 has proven that the UK’s Ministers say one thing and implement next to nothing. The Government seems more interested in stifling the recommendations of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s guidelines on single sex spaces, and definitions of Islamophobia, than the big issues of the day, of which there are so many. For example, the PM states the security of the nation is their first priority: experts tell us constantly that the UK is unable to defend itself and Russia threatens yet, having promised a ramp up in resources for defence, no money has been spent.
The young people of the UK are being seriously prejudiced by Government economic Treasury decisions, at a time when they need real encouragement to work hard and build success.
There are many other harsh lessons from 2025. Accepting the realities is a good starting point for assessing how to go forward positively. There is great cause for hope and optimism if in the UK people also see potential and make changes. But honesty from Government and doing what it promises are vital fundamental changes needed for 2026.
UK HAS OUTSTANDING ADVANTAGES
Britons are known for self-denigration, people wallowing in the “woe is me” syndrome, and sadly these days finding someone to blame. Much needs improvement. Today, however, there is cause for optimism and opportunity, but to achieve potential inevitably requires determination and perhaps cost. And the UK is possibly better placed than any other country in Europe to benefit from the technological changes which are fast developing.
Take for example the UK’s standing in the world: it is as good as it has ever been in the last 50 years, if for example the Economist of 8th November is right in its article “Brand Britain has bounced back” and “The country’s reputation is surprisingly resilient”. It cites for example that according to the British Council’s global survey on perceptions of Britain among 18–34-year-olds, the UK is “the third most attractive country in the G20 “ behind Japan and Italy; and the UK, its legal system and courts, and its institutions are among the highest trusted. It is second for investment according to PwC’s survey of 5000 global business leaders. British culture, sport, arts and media are among the very top. The UK is the second favourite place to study after the USA. In technology and brain power it is among the highest rated, with perhaps the best AI engineers in Europe according to experts, and for tech innovation and start-up businesses it is the top in Europe by far and third in the world. You would not think so according to the complaining British people, and politicians like Nigel Farage who choose to pronounce the UK as a basket case.
It is notable too that so many people from so many countries want to come here, where there are still true freedoms, as reinforced in Matthew Syed’s article “If western democracies are so flawed, why does everyone want to live in one?”. And there is inequality and so people talk of levelling up the North with the South. The obsession should not be with levelling up but with harnessing the huge, wasted potential which resides in parts of the UK which, for lots of reasons, have not moved dynamically with the times, often neglected badly by the UK Treasury.
2026 IS THE YEAR TO MAKE CHALLENGES
For some years in the UK honest opinions have been a bit stifled but now there is light shining on issues with transparency. Lord Smith, Chancellor of Cambridge University, has written championing free speech and academic freedom. Cancelling people for their disagreeable opinions is being challenged and hopefully in 2026 will be stamped out. It is no accident that autocrats like Putin, and sadly Trump and numerous other rulers, seek to silence and take revenge on those who challenge their views. But challenging their views needs not just to continue but to accelerate.
And on women’s rights at last the trans activists, who must of course be given a fair hearing, are now being openly challenged and women’s rights are becoming more dominant. Baroness Falkner of Margravine, departing head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, bemoans in the Times this month how the Labour Party seem to have abandoned women’s rights. She expounds the truth of the need for proportionality when comparing a tiny social group’s rights to those of over half the population.Unfortunately, Brigitte Philipson, Minister for Women, considers the guidelines for single sex spaces prepared by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, reflecting sex biologically, as anti-trans, her personal view counting for more than the independent body it seems. Time for the PM to overrule her?
On the topic of the pathologizing of life – everyday anxieties and problems being given medical names – people such as James Dahl, head of Wellington College, are speaking out, and commentators commonly opine that the over-labelling of children with badges like SEND is destroying their futures. It is becoming acceptable to challenge and question when before there may have been fear of being vilified or cancelled.
Farmers have challenged the unfairness of the inheritance tax raid by the Government announced in last year’s budget and have caused change for the better. It is right that people challenge all excessive tax and excessive spending which now holds the nation back. Commentators are challenging the possible attacks on democracy by proposed delays to elections, and, as a separate matter, attacks on freedom with fundamental changes to our justice system such as a reduction of trials by jury. Pressure seems now to have produced a reversal on policy on non-criminal hatred as police forces at last cease to recognise and record such cases.
Perhaps 2026 should see more challenge of anti-common sense minority interest programmes, wokeness, and of excessively left-wing policies not laid out in the Labour manifesto. The standout UK challenge has been well expressed by the “Looking For Growth” movement which seeks to replace the government’s “choice for British decline” with change to a Britain of growth. Press freedom is of fundamental importance to continue strong challenges on behalf of the public. The media has a huge role to play.
Exercising freedoms and observing goodwill to all people might just take us forward positively in 2026, a time to grasp nettles.
See also: – Choosing Optimism for 2025 – Freedom in the Crosshairs of the Supermen
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