Christmas may be different this year, Brexit isn’t - Ian Murray

Tomorrow we will have a very different Christmas than we would have envisaged just a few months ago.

Households will be quieter when they gather round the TV to watch the Queen's Christmas message this year

We may still go through the usual rituals of getting through double our body weight in chocolate before lunch, reluctantly having the sprouts because they are balanced out by the kilted sausages, listening to the Queen’s Christmas message then falling asleep in front of the TV, but we will do so with fewer friends and loved ones around than planned.

Even Chris Rea wont be driving home for Christmas this year.

Covid has dominated the year. We all thought we would be back to normal by now and reacquainting ourselves with normality. It, sadly, was not to be. The last-minute changes to the

restrictions and rules around Christmas are designed to keep us all safe, but it means 25 December 2020 will not be a day of celebration but a day of loneliness for many.

If you can make contact with a neighbour, friend, colleague or family member who may just be

struggling a little bit this year. A short call and a simple hello can make all the difference. Age

Scotland, the charity for older people, is running a “Make the call this Christmas” campaign to

encourage and fund regular friendship calls to a lonely older person. Get involved if you can.

I wrote in my Christmas column last year that “Edinburgh is a fantastic place to be over Christmas and our Hogmanay celebrations are renowned across the globe. The castle glistens with fireworks

and takes its place alongside the famous attractions of New York, Sydney, London and Paris when

bringing in the New Year. Visitors come from far and wide, boosting our local economy and really

adding to the special festive atmosphere we all enjoy.”

What a difference a year makes. The debate last year was about finding the right balance between

visitors and residents over our festive events. This year the debate is about whether the tourism and

events industry will even survive.

What hasn’t changed, though, is Brexit. Last Christmas we were within days of leaving the EU as a

member, but Boris Johnson told us not to worry as he had an “oven ready Brexit deal” that would be

the “easiest in trade history” providing “frictionless and tariff free trade”. What is true now, as was

then, was this is a complete fabrication of the truth. So much so, that we are within days of crashing

out of the Brexit transition period without a deal. That is not what the PM promised. He must deliver

with days to go otherwise any sunny uplands that a post Covid 2021 may offer will be dwarfed by

the economic, social, political and cultural turmoil of no deal.

A deal is there to be done. For the sake of the country, this is one promise we can’t afford for him to

break.

For all the bleakness, sacrifice, and hardship of the last 9 months or so the vaccines are on their way

and the silver lining is the way the local community has come together to help each other.

And even Covid can’t stop Santa. He will still come as a key worker, just make sure you thoroughly

wash the glass from which he drank his milk or whisky.

Merry Christmas.