Epitaph for a crap year

Due to circumstances beyond its control, this blog was temporarily suspended. It is now back, firing on all cylinders, and in rude health, thank you for asking.
And back just in time for a retrospective on 2011. How was it for you?
It's hard to think of much good that happened. Even some of the Arab Sprng is turning sour. And pity those poor bankers whose bonuses have been slashed so they have only trousered a million or two.
What is most disappointing, though, is the failure of the British people to realise what is being done to them, their country and their cherished institutions. It takes something quite special for a government to be both rabidly ideological and incompetent but this one has achieved it.
It continues to blindly pursue an economic policy which is the equivalent of a doctor strangling a patient while shouting: "Don't worry - it's doing you good!"
At the same time it is destroying the health service and education at every level. Not to mention our relationship with Europe, which means Britain's position in the world.
There is rising unemployment, high inflation (still) and an unprecedented fall in living standards for just about every sector of society. Yet the Tories continue to run neck-and-neck with Labour, which is partly the party's (and Ed Milkiband's) fault but doesn't excuse the Great British Public its myopic, masochistic view of what should be done.
Some things the Coalition is plotting are barely getting any attention. The drastic reduction in the number of MPs and abolition (in effect) of the House of Lords are an unprecendented attack on the way this country is run. Does anyone realise or care? It hardly seems like it.
Happy 2012. Things can only get worse.