It was meant to be great, so how did 2022 turn into the bin fire from hell?

We survived the pandemic only to be torn apart by man-made disasters at home and abroad

- Ayesha Hazarika

I REMEMBER (vaguely) last New Year's Eve. I was in a pub in Vauxhall. The drinks were overpriced, the dancing was dodgy but the mood was hopeful. Everyone was so optimistic about 2022. We joked that it would be like the roaring Twenties. What none of us expected was the crash without any of the jazz hands.

None of us had ever experienced anything like the pandemic because it was a grotesque, cruel twist of fate. We all vowed that if we survived, we would learn every lesson going. We would revive, nourish, invest, and create resilience as individuals and nations. And yet here we all are, limping to the end of the year battered, bruised, our country at breaking point, wondering "what the f*** just happened?" We survived this global freak of nature, only to be torn apart by man-made disasters at home and abroad.