There’s nothing inherently important about the change of year, but it does have a psychological impact and provokes us to look forward.

This new year, let’s not look back as if the mess in the UK and US is our fate but forward, using the past only as a guide and not a master.

This year, let Scotland be free and America be redeemed. Let the good folks who can see the vile folly of this nostalgic slide stand up and firm, and bring those deceived by unthinking bias and avarice forward with us.