So the panic that is Xmas has come and gone. My own personal miracle ofChristmas happened again, thank goodness, as it does every year. Despite theseeming improbability just a week before, there was food in the house, therewere presents under the tree and I even managed to tidy up most of the pilesof things lying around my house which I had always meant to clear away.

London, silenced only for a moment from the dominant hum of big city life,has already sprung back to life with the sales, business and entertainment.London’s lifeblood, its people, are already returning to their everydaylives.And I guess that’s what makes me optimistic about the future – thesheer force of life that is London.

As it creaks back into life – however ground down it sometimes seems;however dreadful the transport system, however few police there are on ourstreets, however dirty it sometimes seems, however unfair its distributionof wealth – London is a survivor and so are its people.

It’s the birthplace of more creativity and talent than almost anywhere elsein the world. A stunning World City straddling the great River Thames, withboth history and modernity competing for air. It’s no wonder that SamuelJohnson penned the famous lines, “when a man is tired of London, he is tiredof life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”

But life for many is a very real struggle. That’s the great challenge forthose now running London. So much of London has been damned, not only bychronic lack of investment over the years by central government, but by lackof vision, lack of ideas, lack of direction and lack of someone to watchover her. But now London does have someone to watch over her and her great,thriving diversity – the new Mayor and London Assembly.

I am extremely optimistic that it will all change for the better. Irecognise that some changes – such as a sensible congestion chargingscheme – will be controversial. But it is the failure of shortsightedpoliticians in the past to get to grips with these issues that have burdenedLondon with so many problems. Just letting London’s transport problems dragon will only make matters even worse. So be warned!

Change is difficult. It is always resisted. But it is what London needs. Soas 2001 comes in at midnight on Sunday, I will thank my lucky stars that Ihave the opportunity to work to achieve those improvements.

And as New Year resolutions are of the moment, as well as helping sortLondon’s problems, as always, I will resolve to lose weight, take moreexercise, be nicer to my children – and of course – give Ken Livingstone ahard time.

Happy New Year!

(c) Lynne Featherstone, 2000