Time for joyous but restrained celebrations

As another pretty awful year comes to an end a lot of people will be giving the impression that the worst is over and that it's time to celebrate like the good old days. Here in the UK there will be pictures in all the newspapers tomorrow of wild carousing in the pubs and streets despite the attempts by Boris Johnson and others to caution people to celebrate the New Year with caution and common sense. I hope they do but I can't see it happening, not in England anyway where all pubs and night clubs and wine bars will be open for carousing business. There will, I am sure, be a large degree of madness and alcoholic excesses. If it's followed by a massive spread of the Omicron variant both the New Year drinking victims and Boris Johnson will live to regret the decision not to impose any new restrictions. If Omicron doesn't venture hungrily into every bar and night club then it will be the first sign that perhaps this virus has exhausted itself. I pray both for those planning a celebratory night out tonight and for all of us that this will be the case and that we can look forward to 2022 as the year when this pandemic leaves these shores.