Bruce Anderson

My recipe to cure a hangover

issue 11 January 2020

Journalists exaggerate, often reaching for superlatives to chronicle mildly interesting events. Even so, there are times when it is necessary to become hyperbolic. 2019 was an extraordinary year. As Chou En-lai might have said, it is too early to assess its significance. We will be doing that for at least the next 20 years. Indeed, it may turn out to be one of the most important dates in our peacetime history.

The new year has also started with a bang. It was cunning of the government to persuade Donald Trump to drive Dominic Cummings out of the headlines, but that will not exhaust 2020’s disruptive potential.

Exhaustion leads one to the end of Christmas. It is extraordinary to think that when I was a little boy, Christmas Day was not a public holiday in Scotland, nor was New Year’s Day in England.

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