My 8 Wishes for 2008

Paul W tagged me with these so here goes:

• Above everything real progress on the peace process in Israel/Palestine. Sometimes I can't even listen to the news reports anymore they are so despairing. Thus the news yesterday that the Israelis are demonstrating their commitment to this process by continuing to illegally build on occupied land beggars belief. How can anyone take their so called desire for peace seriously when they continue to flout international law? How does building an apartheid wall and deliberately stealing Palestinian land in the process contribute to peace? I have said it before and will say it again, it is no good trying to be even handed about this, the stakes are totally unbalanced. If you come and steal my house and force me to live in the toilet and keep me there by your superior strength, I may not think a reasonable solution is that you keep the kitchen the living area and let me have a bedroom, or that the onus is on me because I should not be trying to get you to leave. When people talk about reconciliation (which I absolutely believe in) and co-existence - my response is this. If you are sitting on my head I may need you to get off my head before I can be reconciled. If in the process of sitting on my head you blacked my eye and broke my nose, I may expect an apology. If in the process of trying to get you off my head I kicked you where it hurts, I may need to apologise too. I fail to see how peace can ever be achieved without at least a modicum of honesty about the reality of the situation.


• Great success for Nick Clegg and the advancement of our party. We have an enormous opportunity with Nick's election as leader. My desire for his and by proxy, our, success, is not partisan. It is simply because neither of the other two Tory parties either give a real choice or have gone any way to tackling the real problems that face millions living in poverty in a rich country and the associated impact that has on us all.


• The complete withdrawal of our troops from Iraq.


• A greater sense of our international interdependency - I was shocked earlier this year to hear a mother somewhere in Battersea saying she would continue to drive her monster 4x4 because she cared more about her children's safety than global warming. If they died why would she be bothered about anyone else? Her selfishness combined with a complete lack of understanding of the impact global warming will ultimately have on her children's future if she cares nothing for anyone else, demonstrates just what a challenge we have.


• For this government to have a Damascus Road moment - and abandon all their silly ideas like 42 day detention, ID cards, compulsory education for 17 and 18 year olds, ASBOs, renewing Trident.........etc etc etc.........


• Brian Eno's no 1 hit


• To get to see Yas's latest play In-no-sense (we live in hope she has been writing it for over 2 years, but if it is anything like Bells it will be excellent)


• To hold my 50th Birthday Bash (OK, 3 year late, but I'll get there eventually!)

So I pass the tag on to: Alex Cole-Hamilton, Bob Shaw , Lynne Featherstone, Peter Black