Only political change can improve the uk in 2010

It saw unemployment increase by more than 600,0000 while the economy shrank by almost five per cent – the most vicious recession since the Thirties. Public debt soared to unprecedented

levels as the Government failed to get a grip on its spending. But even beyond the economy and the national accounts there was a wider sense of Britain being mired in a new era of decline.

Our brave but under-equipped soldiers suffered terrible losses in Afghanistan without inflicting a decisive defeat on their Taliban enemy. Elsewhere on the global stage Britons have seldom

seemed in such danger of kidnap and persecution, probably because those who would do them harm were emboldened by the sense of Britannia being weakened. The release of Peter Moore in Iraq

yesterday was a rare moment of joy amid the gloom. So the start tomorrow of a new year and a new decade will come as a relief to most Britons. The key event of 2010 will be a general

election that not even Gordon Brown, that most voter-averse of politicians, can wriggle out of. Only by ejecting him from office can the British people start to repair the damage to their

society and economy that he has wreaked. This newspaper will not only play an energetic part in encouraging such a turn of events but will also crusade on behalf of law-abiding, hard-working

people everywhere, ensuring that the next government pays far more heed to their interests and values than has the current one. There is no point pretending that this moment finds the

nation at ease with itself or filled with optimism. But it is a comfort to know that the possibility of change is at last approaching. Happy New Year.