Farewell 2020, it's high time we move on

A year that started well with news that the island economy had grown for the sixth year in a row finished with the States emptying its coffers just to stay in the black.

It was a year that began with blue-sky calls for a tunnel to Jersey and ended with the two Channel Islands further apart than they have been for decades.

And it was the year when this newspaper hailed ‘a weekend of Sarnian success’ – including long-distance sea swimmer Adrian ‘Sea Donkey’ Sarchet completing his Oceans Seven mission – before top-level sport went into hibernation.

We know now that as the island fretted about 25mph speed limits, overspending on UK consultants and threats by the French not to let our fish land, virologists across the world were gearing up for the biggest challenge of their lives.

As islanders raised their voices in protest about nurses’ pay, a two-school system and climate change the news agenda was about to get swamped.

For in 2020 one story got everywhere: the coronavirus pandemic.

Even Brexit, which had long dominated the front pages and airwaves, had to take a back seat.

From late spring onwards Covid was all-consuming. Airlines faced collapse, cruise ships cancelled and the hotel and tourism industry entered a long nightmare from which it has yet to awaken. Families lost loved ones and the jobless total soared.

Moments of light amid the gloom were all too rare: rainbows and rock piles, new anti-discrimination laws, the first female Deputy Bailiff, an island-wide vote with few real hitches, the Isle of Man air bridge and countless precious public events such as the Vale Earth Fair. But the clouds never went away.

The hope has to be that 2021 will be another topsy-turvy year.

This time, however, as the vaccine slowly takes hold the Bailiwick will move in the right direction and emerge stronger and more united than ever, ready to make the most of all the benefits of living in these beautiful islands.