REALISING YOUR DREAMS IN 2021?
I received notification for the third time that our holiday to Norway had been cancelled due to the current prevalence of Covid 19 in the UK. Like many our travel plans have had to change but due to the travel company’s “Keep Dreaming Travel Plan” the option to travel in 2021, and beyond, is kept open.
This prompted me to consider what will 2021 hold in store for the UK?
In part, this will depend on our collectively being able to successfully manage further outbreaks of Covid 19, in a targeted manner, and with an effective track and trace system. Confidence is beginning to return to the UK economy although many city centres are still bereft of tourists and office workers.
Clarity of messaging from government will be essential as there are still many people wary of the disease; seemingly constant negativity from some areas of the media does not help. Unfortunately, life will not return to normal until a vaccine is available or the virus dies out (which seems unlikely) and so we will all need to make the “new normal” workable.
By the end of 2020, the UK will have completed its negotiations with the EU and the UK will need to find a new USP (“unique selling point”) reflecting our truly global ambitions.
Membership of the EU has meant that many of the skills we used to have as a sovereign trading country have lapsed as such activities became centralised within the EU bureaucratic machine. As has been shown by current trade discussions, it will take some time to realign our existing EU-based agreement with new agreements as an independent sovereign nation. There is clearly much to play for and fortune often favours the brave. Europe will still remain our largest trading partner for some time although our focus is likely to switch to developing further our historic relationships with individual countries within Europe.
It is likely in 2021 that there will be medical solutions to Covid 19 that might not provide a total cure but which will allow a more substantial return to what we recognise as normal. This in turn will help loosen the current restrictions on the world economy that will be of benefit to the UK. There is however, a unique issue for the UK to address, namely how do we retain the integrity of the United Kingdom? It cannot be that a Conservative and Unionist Party allows a breakup in the Union that has been of such mutual benefit. Retaining all members of the Union must remain a high priority. We might be in “overtime” with Scotland but the final whistle has not yet been blown and there is still all to play for.
Closer to home, we have the West Sussex County Council elections in May 2021. Whilst too early to start campaigning, it will be important to return a Conservative-led Council, so please look out for the leaflets in the early part of next year.
Returning to the theme of the “Keep Dreaming Travel Plan” it is clear that 2021 will need to be a year of action for the UK and making dreams happen as failure will not an option.
I hope you too are able to realise some of your own dreams in the year to come.
