David Blanchard

Reasons to be cheerful | 15 December 2008

Numerous public figures gives their reasons to be cheerful this Christmas

It may feel like the end of the world, perhaps it is, but even so, it’s still the season of goodwill, good cheer and good news for mankind. It seemed right then for The Spectator to ask a selection of Britain’s great and good to shed a little light on these gloomy times, and tell us why, despite our broken society and the plummeting pound, we should keep our spirits up.

Boris Johnson

It was the great Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now who said, ‘Some day this war’s gonna end.’ And some day this recession is going to end too. Confidence is going to come surging back with all the biological inevitability of the new infatuation that follows a broken heart. In the meantime, there’s always bicycle hire schemes and bacon sandwiches.

Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development

One reason I will be cheerful this festive season is that next month Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.

For many of us who so admire the United States, it was inspiring to witness the election of its first black president. For me, the anticipation is also personal. In 1959, the week after they married, my parents moved to New York, where my father studied divinity and my mother completed her medical training. While there they joined fellow students in travelling to North Carolina to protest against segregation. They picketed lunch counters which would not serve blacks and were spat at by fellow whites for their actions. They queued up to attend the inaugural meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Council, where they heard the words of a young Baptist preacher — Dr Martin Luther King.

Then, the idea of a black president was a distant dream.

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