2017- a brief look back at a puzzling year

What a difference a year makes! As we approached 2017 just 12 months ago, many of us were sick and tired of the way 2016 had gone. So many celebrity deaths, so much disturbance, rack and ruin, all dominating news networks around the globe! Could 2017 be even worse? Quite frankly, we were all getting a bit nervous.

But what actually happened next is still rather puzzling. Let's go through the events of 2017 as they happened, month by month....

Nostalgia corner

In 1980, ‘Not the Nine O’Clock News’ was a satirical BBC show featuring some young upstarts who went on to carve out very successful careers. Just as the result of the U.S. Presidential election was announced, they closed one show with this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmWLJmbytkk

So just in case the current US presidential campaign continues to get even more scary, here’s an updated version. And by the way, I do love our American friends and wish them well. Please… just don’t vote for him. For all our sakes, please don’t. Thank you.

Important security update- do not delete

From: British Airports Authority

To: All air passengers planning to return to the UK through any British airport, from 1/03/16.

Important security update for our valued passengers

Due to the developing security situation across the Middle East, the Far East, North Africa, Southern Africa, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, most of Western Europe and just about anywhere else counting as 'foreign' apart from Canada (which is relatively harmless), and those parts of the USA not affected by Donald Trump, and also because of the upcoming referendum on membership of the EU, the Foreign Office has informed all travellers and NGOs with British staff to make them aware of the following, when planning return trips to the U.K.

What are you giving up for Lent?

Chocolate? Hmmm…. Too easy, and too necessary to keep me awake mid-afternoon. Cake? But solid, juicy fruit cakes are a gift from God. Meat? No. There’s something I ‘use’ that probably does me and our world far more damage. So for purely selfish reasons, I’m going to be starting a Lenten fast involving NOT READING ANY NEWSPAPERS from Ash Wednesday up to Easter. If that sounds a bit weak, it’s because I’m an obsessive reader of online newspapers who needs to break the habit. Why? Because over the next few weeks, I’m going to see what my life could be like without being repeatedly told by…

The Guardian and the Independent

… That the world’s going to hell in a handbasket due to global warming, eating meat, Donald Trump, gun-toting American rednecks, whilst being fed self-satisfied platitudes demanding to know why can’t we all be nice to each other, and by the way, don’t you think all the people who disagree with us are racist bigoted homophobic scumbags who need to be re-educated quickly… preferably by our leader-writers?

The Daily Mail

… That the country’s going to hell in a handbasket due to immigrants, the European Union, Muslims who are going to murder us in our beds, lower moral standards (but please don’t look too closely at Mail Online), with added platitudes saying that it’s all either the fault of Jeremy Corbin, or the Church of England who have just gone soft by running food banks for the poor and asking why they are hungry.