The year in question Feb. 1, 2009

It seems incredible that after all we’ve strived for, we should start 2009 so broken – with huge job losses, racial tensions and strikes and all. There has only been two things in Britain so far this year which everyone across the board has embraced : Barack Obama’s election and then this first real snowfall for more than a generation – making everyone look again at things with which they thought they were familiar. These two phenomenens are significant and invaluable.