Peter Rhodes: At last – optimism from the elite

FLICKING idly through The Boys' Book of Airfix. Watching the DVD of Swallows and Amazons. Sipping a chilled cocktail of sloe gin and bubbly. Whatever they tell you, the real joy of presents is in the receiving.

THE year ends, as it began, with a furious row about how much foreign aid Britain sends to relatively wealthy countries or states run by despots. Here's a simple way forward. Let's agree that not a penny of UK aid goes to any country with either a nuclear industry or a space programme. As for the world's dictators who seem to use our money to buy themselves huge limousines, let's at least cut out the middle men and send the money directly to Mercedes-Benz.

NICK Clegg and George Osborne are said to have been spotted in a Westminster cafe, sparking speculation that they may be forming a new alliance against a "hard" Brexit. Reality check, please. There must be dozens of places in London where this pair could conspire in secret. If they have been "spotted," it is obviously because they wanted to be spotted.

A LAW to protect our privacy sounds so kind and wise that no-one could possibly argue against it. And then we look at Germany whose well-meaning obsession with protecting individual privacy meant the first "wanted" posters for the Berlin truck-killer Anis Amri had the face obscured. Media were at first allowed to identify him only as "Anis A." I can't think of a better example of the old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

DECEMBER saw the passing of our old Sunday School superintendent. I remembered him from my childhood as a stern old man with a clipped moustache, driving an immaculate black Ford Prefect. The death notice said he died aged 97. Which means that when I first met the stern old man, he was actually 39. I suspect men matured earlier back then.

AT last, an optimist in the ranks of the elite breaks cover. Did you not punch the air with joy to hear the former Bank of England Governor, Lord Mervyn King, speaking of the good things that leaving the EU will bring? While not dismissing the difficulties, he declared: "There are many opportunities and I think we should look at it in a much more self-confident way than either side is approaching it at present. Being out of what is a pretty unsuccessful European Union – particularly in the economic sense – gives us opportunities as well as obviously great political difficulties." Too many pundits assume that Britain is a spent force which needs the EU for support. The reverse is true. Look around you. Britain has a workforce of 32 million and the fifth biggest economy in the world. We are a huge, busy and potent nation whose power and influence have been limited by a failed 40-year experiment in being governed from Brussels. As that nice Mr Blair put it, things can only get better. And this time it's true.

PS: Just between you and me, I still fear that when we are finally declared to be Out of the EU, it will look suspiciously like In.