A dreadful year, but great for us!

So, what of 2022? a war in europe saw a collective holding of breath while we waited to see how far Russia’s psychotic President Putin would push things. This was closely followed by the exhaling of a contented sigh once Ukraine started kicking Russian arse.

Which had me wondering: “Why doesn’t the Kremlin give its soldiers the same drugs they pumped into their Olympic athletes? This way they will be unstoppable.” I am not seeking consideration as some kind of special advisor to despot dictators but I’ve often pondered as to why Hitler didn’t wait for the snow to hit Britain before invading our shores. Going by our recent, and normal, reaction to a flurry of the ‘white stuff’ the Fuhrerwith-the-single-gonad would have witnessed us waving the white flag in surrender as long as he granted us a snow day.

The past 12 months have seen us lose our beloved Queen to be succeeded by her forever grumpy son. A man who holds the general public, his subjects, in more contempt than his younger brother did the American judicial system. Mourning the Queen’s passing must have had a double whammy effect once royalists realised that, under King Charles III, they are probably seeing the beginning of the end of the House of Windsor.

In my view the World Cup in Qatar never really got going. Obviously it should never be held in winter because there was little to no appetite for rocking down to a beer garden or fan zone to slop most of our lager while shivering with hypothermia.

On the plus side, we also couldn’t be bothered to fly those little flags from our car. The crown jewel of football should never have been awarded to a country that refuses to acknowledge that the letter ‘U’ should always come after ‘Q’.

Also, when was it decided that players could spend ten minutes celebrating a goal by congregating at the corner flag for chat? They did everything but serve tea…

Qataris have rightly been condemned for their archaic views on same-sex relationships. However, at least they are honest and open on their objection to homosexuality and probably had to double any bribe paid to FIFA executives for them to clear this thorny hurdle.

While it was reassuring to see players and FAs from around the world come together to condemn Qatar’s homophobic views, the ‘Football Family’ are completely hypocritical given that of the 130,000 professional male footballers in the world, only two have come out as homosexual. Not very inclusive or accepting is it?

Three Prime Ministers in one year (at the time of going to press), a cost of living crisis and more strikes than a Swan Vesta testing centre sees the country stumble from one crisis to the next. The present incumbent promises to “fix the economy” – an economy whose decline he presided over as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Sunak triumphantly strutted into Downing Street to take over from the hapless Liz Truss, a woman who needed Waze to find her way out of her own press conference yet still managed to beat Sunak soundly in the first race to be leader.

Mind boggling!

If 2022 was a (another) year to forget on the global spectrum, closer to home and within our own professional driver world, it has been a phenomenal year. The upturn in trade has been unprecedented and responsible for forcing up prices and subsequently the wages of drivers.

Admittedly a price rise had to happen just to meet the increased cost of fuel and other related services that have been rising faster than the Toon Army under Eddie Howe. UK drivers are, at last, fast approaching the point when we are getting the rates we should have demanded ten years back.

Some good news among the gloom of an icy winter is that early signs point toward 2023 continuing to be as busy as this year, if not better.

So, is it time for growth within our industry? Dare we start to put the enforced covid shut-down behind us and look at planning expansion to our business. I believe so!

We need vehicles to come back on stream again and we will need new drivers to support the established pool. People are desperate to travel along with business men and women being finished with Zoom meetings and yearning to get back to pressing the flesh.

Let’s not forget that the UK is (still) the major financial hub of Europe, perhaps the world (not sure about that – Ed). The UK possesses an enviable treasure chest of history, historic sites, culture, food and drink that are top of most travellers’ bucket list. It matters not that they ‘have done London’ because we’ll take them to Oxford, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Bath or the Cotswolds, Cornwall, Snowdonia in Wales and Glencoe in Scotland.

We have already built it and they will come.

Hoping you all get the chance to recharge over the festive period I wish you a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous 2023.

Kevin Willis runs Chirton Grange, contact@chirtongrange.co.uk – 07725467263