My year in review

What marks one year out from another? Years pass by but is there really anything that in your mind marks one year out from another?

For me 2005 will be remembered for the General Election (I have reviewed this in my blog) but there are many more things that have happened this year. It seems that politically the second half of 2005 was taken with the party leadership election. At the time that Howard announced his departure I, like many, was fearful of an extended leadership election, even though I knew this would give us the chance to really understand what the candidates stood for. As it happened it was an invigorating time for the party that has done nothing but good  both internally and externally. David Cameron has made a fantastic start and panic has set in on the Labour benches and open warfare is now in the Lib Dems.

The Lib Dems appear to be slipping into the type of problems that the Conservatives had; starting to represent the country as it was and not as it is. They have no natural successor to lead their party. Their most likely candidate would be skipping a generation the reverse way from where the Conservatives have gone; just at the time that even the Labour party is thinking that maybe skipping over the Brown generation could be a good thing. Could David Miliband really be the next Labour leader?

It appears that the real battle is the confusion at the heart of the Lib Dems as to where they go; left or right. A key criticism of the Lib Dems is that they say different things to different people in different areas. But then this is not surprising considering there are two distinct factions in the Lib Dems. Still this is a problem for them and frankly not one that interests me. What DC has taught is that we need to think more about the future and worry less about what others stand for. Politically the year ends with the Conservatives stronger than in the past 13 years and Labour and the Lib Dems confused and divided about their futures.

On the business front I finally seem to have set up the new Not-for-Profit business that has taken months to happen; legal and financial issues take time to work through. We now have an objective and a very busy 2006 ahead as we try to make this new small business survive the vagaries of a business life.

The house did not make a lot of progress this year and doubtless early 2006 will be spent sorting the kitchen and rooms yet to be decorated.

So, here ends 2005 – a year to remember.

Tomorrow I will post my New Year resolutions.