It has been a difficult year but there are reasons for Christmas cheer

Although the Omicron variant has cast a shadow over the festive season for many people, there are some reasons for Christmas cheer. The UK is undoubtedly in a much better place on coronavirus than it was a year ago.

Thanks to the remarkable work of scientists at Oxford University and elsewhere, the vaccination campaign offers vital protection the nation did not enjoy last Christmas. So do the availability of drugs and mass testing. There are some restrictions – and more coming soon in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, if not in England – but thankfully we are not in lockdown, and are unlikely to be.

Four separate studies have found that Omicron is milder than Delta, with the UK Health Security Agency reporting that people infected with the new variant are between 50 and 70 per cent less likely to be admitted to hospital.

We are not out of the woods yet; the NHS is still under intense pressure, and staff absences are also causing real problems in other public services. But there are welcome signs that the rate of growth in cases is slowing. Let us hope the cautious optimism of the experts proves justified in the new year, and that Omicron departs as fast as it arrived.

The pandemic has dominated the past 12 months, just as it did last year. 2021 was a difficult year for many, but it was a better one than we might have expected after such a gruelling 2020. Covid might be playing havoc with the festive football programme, but it did not stop Euro 2020 being a wonderful spectacle.

England’s deserved passage to the final was sadly followed by another heroic defeat (on penalties, of course). Off the pitch, Gareth Southgate and his team were great ambassadors. By standing up to culture warriors, including Priti Patel, over “taking the knee”, they revealed a country more tolerant on racism than the bigots had hoped.

There was more to celebrate as Team GB finished fourth in the medals table at the Tokyo Olympics. Then, at the age of 18, Emma Raducanu’s sensational victory in the US Open made her the first British woman in 44 years to win a Grand Slam singles title.

2021 will be remembered for extreme weather events across the globe, which graphically brought home the dangers of climate change and led the United Nations to warn of a “code red for humanity”. The Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow did make some real progress, despite a last-minute disagreement that saw pledges on coal diluted. It is vital that momentum is maintained in 2022; if it is, Glasgow will have been an important staging post.

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The limitations of Boris Johnson’s “global Britain” mantra, with its heavy dependence on the US, were illustrated by the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. The impact of Brexit and global issues led to supply-chain problems, including panic buying at petrol stations.

There was a ray of hope for a kinder, gentler politics after the murder of the widely respected Tory MP David Amess; MPs from rival parties realised they had more in common than they thought.

Unfortunately, the new mood didn’t last. Politicians were soon at each other’s throats again after Mr Johnson’s foolish attempt to save the skin of Owen Paterson turned the spotlight on the darker side of politics. The prime minister has been in a downward spiral since; his last two months of 2021 have been so disastrous that they have made it a year he will want to forget.

Mr Johnson’s woes have put a long period of Tory dominance under pressure. The Liberal Democrats are back in business after two memorable by-election victories in Tory heartlands. Labour ends the year ahead in the opinion polls, and the much stronger shadow cabinet put in place by Keir Starmer is landing some blows on an underperforming government. The Tories finally have a fight on their hands; eventually, 2021 proved a healthy year for our democracy.