"Yuletide revels were designed to see you through the dark days — and how dark they seem today"

‘From roughly 2015 onwards, the Mumsnet feminist forum became a key platform for gender critical discussion—or, as one less sympathetic American magazine dubbed it, “the ground zero for British transphobia”’

‘For anyone who cares about peace within the British Isles and liberal democracy without, there are strong reasons to oppose Scottish independence. But how? In the 2014 referendum the case for the Union was made almost entirely in the unromantic terms of pounds and pence. It worked then, but it probably wouldn’t work now’

‘After a long time people are finally beginning to wake up to “the long march through the institutions”—the idea that left-wing “progressives” have to infiltrate public bodies in order to push through their ideologies. The long march is now well underway’

‘My concentration seems to be shot this year for anything except work. I have entirely failed to learn a new language, finish a novel, or watch anything more demanding than repeats of Morse’

It has been a year of doubts and uncertainties: fluctuating infection and death rates, empty promises and political false starts, civil unrest, social injustice, abject diplomacy

‘The reality is that, under this government’s stewardship, a plethora of damaging developments have been unleashed in the countryside. Historic hedgerows are being grubbed up. Ancient woodlands are being bulldozed’

‘People do not vote as a bloc, and ethnic or racial groups—and often individuals within these groups—contain a multitude of political opinions’

‘Despite unprecedented harassments, President Trump has had the most successful first term in US history except for Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon’

“For many, the end of this uneasy year cannot come quickly enough”