I hope everyone has a great Christmas, I will be watching Netflix and staying in the warm as it looks cold. I always dreamed as a kid of having more than 4 TV channels, now you have hundreds, and shows on demand, I can honestly say I have not watched the likes of ITV or BBC in years due to this. Then there is Youtube, some classic shows from the 50s/60s/and 70s are on there that don’t get shown on TV anymore. You really can find just about everything.

Sadly still around 3 million are excluded from help since the pandemic began, a figure similar to the population of Wales, decent hardworking taxpayers left with nothing, some having to sell their cars/possessions and even their homes, and are getting into terrible debt. Sadly some industries are a way off coming back, and it can be hard to get another job in this current climate, especially if you age is against you. If you have had the wonderful safety net of the furlough/self employed scheme, or family helping out, spare a thought as to how you would have coped if you had not received that, with no income or a greatly reduced income since March, and if you did get a job in the meantime, it was on a fraction of what you once earned. Then there are businesses in hospitality that keep having to open and close at a moments notice, with little financial help, the list goes on and on.

On a positive note, I am sure next year, after we have got through the worst of the winter Covid and Flu season and more people are vaccinated there will be an end to all this, and better times ahead, I cant wait to be on the beachfront in Spain enjoying an ice cream and hot weather, I am already planning a celebration for when life is back to normal, and trying to focus on that.

Rose