Alex Kane: I’ll be glad to see the back of 2020, but have been quite pleased to have lived through it

Few individual years have book collections devoted to them: 1066, 1491, 1914, 1939 and 1968 spring to mind. 2020 will join the list.

I’ll be glad to see the back of it, yet I’m actually quite pleased to have lived through it.

It has been one of those moments when the entire world has been on the same page at the same time: not divided into warring camps, but standing shoulder to shoulder against a common, taking-no-prisoners enemy.

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It’s been a year of personal reflection for everyone. I noted in March, in one of my first columns on the pandemic, there’d be nothing like the Grim Reaper ganging up with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to pull us up in our tracks and make us reassess our values, our place in the world and the bedrock importance of family and friends.

The first Executive meeting after the signing of the New Decade New Approach deal in January – but all the old problems seem to remainThe first Executive meeting after the signing of the New Decade New Approach deal in January – but all the old problems seem to remain
The first Executive meeting after the signing of the New Decade New Approach deal in January – but all the old problems seem to remain

As the months dragged on, with the constant chatter of ‘returning to normal,’ I began to hope it wouldn’t just be a return to normal. Instead, we’d learn lessons about ourselves and each other – particularly our interdependence and common humanity – and we’d move to a place that wasn’t quite the same: a place where learned lessons would be taken on board and become a societal platform on which we would all find space.

How everything will turn out remains uncertain. There are worrying signs the old habits of grasp and greed are still in play, along with a troubling battle between selfless behaviour and selfish behaviour. I have opted for caution all along: not because I’m a sheep, but because in a pandemic every individual can be a carrier and every transmission has huge potential life-changing, life-ending consequences for others. It was that concern which steered my behaviour, rather than the opinions of those using excitable language about ‘scamdemic’ and ‘police state’.

Meanwhile, the sort of politics which used to engross me suddenly seemed terribly mundane. Maybe it always was. After three years of nothing – I really do mean nothing – the DUP, SF, Alliance, SDLP and UUP signed up to a New Decade New Approach deal which they clearly hadn’t bothered to read before doling out the trinkets of Executive office. All the problems which had dogged relationships from 2007 were left unaddressed and unresolved, meaning the same old stand-offs and showdowns were sitting a little way down the track.

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Even something as unique and epic in scale as a pandemic wasn’t able to burrow through the political/institutional permafrost and nudge the DUP and SF towards something resembling genuine cooperation and a we-really-all-are-in-this-together approach to politics. There isn’t a scintilla of evidence to suggest coronavirus can tell the difference between a unionist or nationalist, yet there were people on both sides of the fence who seemed to think it might have a preference for one rather than the other. It seems the ‘dreary steeples’ will always trump everything else.

And talking about Trump (oh, come on, that was a pretty good segue). He may well be mad, bad and dangerous to know, yet he still piled on millions of extra votes (not one of which was stolen or illegal, obviously) and outpolled every previous losing candidate and quite a few winners, too. That tells us something very significant about America right now, not least that it is more divided than at any time since the 1860s. That raises enormous difficulties for Biden. It also raises similarly enormous difficulties for Republican grandees, who will be divided over how best to address Trump’s legacy and continuing influence.

Boris Johnson may have left it to the last minute, but he did pull off the EU deal – which, on closer inspection, is a little better than expected, yet not as good as it should have been. But that’s the nature of this sort of negotiation. I’m pleased there is a deal. We’ve had almost four years of an interminable war of words between those prophesising the end of days and those forecasting the sunny uplands of a new-found independence and sovereignty. From now on we’ll be dealing with the actualities.

Johnson will not be judged on last week’s deal. He will be judged on what the UK looks like in five or ten years’ time. Economic progress, low unemployment rates, new-found confidence and a good relationship with the EU will be the determining factors, not least when it comes to reassuring the fears of those who voted Remain. Crucially, he must be prepared to face down – although crush is a better word – old challenges from the ERG and Nigel Farage’s new Reform UK party. Those battles must end.

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Johnson still leaves NI unionism with a dilemma. He has tipped the constitutional balance against it, shifting NI a little further from GB’s ambit and towards what I’ve taken to describing as granny-flat status. The shift need not be fatal, yet it could be if the DUP’s continuing leadership of unionism remains as cack-handedly blundering and wilfully stupid as it has been since March 2017.

I have no personal animus towards Arlene Foster, but she really does need to start listening more intently to those who share her fears, albeit unexpressed, for the future of the Union. This isn’t just a problem for the DUP. It’s a collective problem for unionism and must be addressed collectively.

And on that note, I’ll wish all of you a happy, gentler, less stressful 2021. Stay safe and well.

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