Ruminations On A Year To Remember/Forget (Delete As Applicable)

2017. What to say? There is no doubt as to the person who hogged the news. An entire liberal class, in several languages, has been banging on about the one and only The Divine Combover, the supreme shit wagon that is Donald Trump. I'm sorry but even when the man does something laudable (low taxes anyone?) it comes across as self-serving and vile. Somewhere in the depths of the year I read a piece that argued for the bringing back into fashion of the word 'ghastly' on the premise that it best summed up Trump. Agreed, the man is plain ghastly. The great sadness - so is Hillary Clinton (though not I concede on quite such a grand scale), which rather explains how we find ourselves in a sorry old state where the President takes to Twitter to boast about the size and effectiveness of his nuclear button. Ghastly indeed.

It's a small thing (not something you'd ever hear Trump say - boom boom!) but in 2017 this blog passed its one hundred thousandth hit. Thank you.

Politics in Britain was almost as bad a joke as Trumpland. We had an election which Theresa May fought so ineptly as to defy belief. Jeremy Corbyn has come to look electable. Ed Balls is reconfguring himself as a cosy media personality. His former antagonist George Osborne meanwhile manages to project himself as an even bigger c*** as a journalist that he was as Chancellor. Brexit (and yes I know I voted for it) is being handled as brilliantly as the Tory election campaign. Mark my words - there will be tears, not all of them British.

Good thing: the drawn Lions' series in New Zealand, reminding everyone that there doesn't always have to be a winner. The hard-fought draw is honourable.  A great pity that this nostrum is lost on modern professional cricketers.

Bad thing: my betting record at the Cheltenham Festival. Not a winner in sight.

Good thing: the Cheltenham Festival.

Bad thing: my golf - infrequent and incompetent.

Good thing: Cleeve Hill Golf Club, where I played in the company of good men and true and my little brother won the Question Mark Trophy.

Bad thing: Donald Tru...... Oh sorry I've already done that.

Good thing: I'm still in there swinging.

Bad thing: I'm still in there swinging.

Here's to a year of sensible political resolutions, wise gambling and good golf. Some chance - I'll lay you 100/1 the treble. For those of you of a legal bent, this is an invitation to treat not an offer susceptible of acceptance. Just thought I'd make that clear.

Happy New Year.