Express & Star comment: Reasons to be cheerful in new year
In the words of John Lennon: It’s another year over, and a new one just begun.
And 2018, like the year before it, promises to be another unpredictable 12 months of change and challenge on an international, national and local level.
Once again Brexit will be dominating the political agenda in the UK as the pace of negotiations towards our departure from the European Union on March 29, 2019, picks up.
Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May will be continuing her efforts to keep control after last year’s shock snap-election left her so weakened and political in-fighting on all sides is almost guaranteed.
Meanwhile, the global threat of terrorism continues to hang over us, an inescapable part of our lives now, after so many terrible atrocities in the UK and abroad in 2017.
The future of unpredictable US President Donald Trump is still to be determined – but will no doubt begin with a tweet!
Here in the West Midlands, we can be relied upon to take things in our stride in the year ahead, to keep calm and carry on.
And despite uncertainty and controversy on a national scale, there are many reasons for us to be cheerful and positive about the year ahead facing us here in the Black Country and Staffordshire.
Wolves are top of the pack in the Championship and looking right on course for a return to the Premier League.
Meanwhile there is major new investment in developments in Wolverhampton and elsewhere in the region ready to start or well under way.
The main feel-good event of 2018 will be the Royal Wedding, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will walk up the aisle on May 19, which is sure to unite the nation.
While sports fans will be glued to their TVs in June and July as England’s new-look football team bids to finally land a second World Cup after 62 years of hurt.
Throughout 2018, as always, the Express & Star will continue to bring you all the latest news and sport, both in print and online at expressandstar.com, as it happens and as the events of 2018 unfold.
Thank you to all our readers for your loyalty and support in 2017 and we wish you a very Happy New Year.
