Northern Lights: Hope to continue the task of trying to restore the historic sense of belonging

My hope is that everyone reading this column will have had at least some joy over Christmas, warmth, decent food and company but for some Christmas is a mixed blessing.

For those with Christian faith, it is a time of rejoicing, coming together to share, sing and hopefully, for those living alone, to set aside loneliness.

30% of us apparently live alone. Sheffield Hallam University has academics working on the challenges, and how we can put the glue back into society so that something more meaningful than meeting people on WhatsApp or over the Internet, can be restored to everyday life.

At its best, therefore, Christmas and the lead up to a New Year, is a time of being able to make friends, renewing contact with family or long-lost acquaintances, and perhaps to indulge.

Historically, it was a time that coincided with the winter solstice, with trying to bring some cheer at a time of freezing cold; of long nights and short days, and scarcity when food from around the world wasn't immediately available.

Today, it is a time of abundance for many, and heartbreaking scarcity and watching the pennies for others.

My hope for 2025 is simple. That we can continue the task of trying to restore the historic sense of belonging, a feeling of community and the strength of neighbourhood which makes Sheffield such a special place.

Many thought that the aftermath of the worst of the covid pandemic would be the continuance of that neighbourliness. Great optimism emerged in terms of whether we were turning a corner on how people treat each other, how we would pull together and seek common purpose. I'm afraid, at the time, I was a bit of a Jonah, as I thought the opposite might be the case. That increased isolation, working from home, and massively increased absence of children from school would accelerate an already disastrous trend.

Sadness and loneliness are often now described as “depression". The sometimes rotten hand we are dealt in the ups and downs of life has taken on proportions which lead to a cry that we have a “mental health crisis". Yet whilst it's true that demands on mental health services have grown exponentially; that children presenting with all kinds of diagnosable special needs are making the challenge for our schools even greater, the fundamental difference must surely be how we see ourselves?

It is clear that people are looking for answers to these kinds of crises in the way they vote. Demonstrating the unpopularity of the current Labour government, in a November council by-election, the Liberal Democrats took a seat from Labour, with Reform just 10 votes behind.

This dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs is not unique to Sheffield, and the lesson of politics across the world is a very simple one. People are looking for quite dramatic change including in the US presidential election in which Donald Trump, remarkably, managed to win the popular vote.

The same signals are coming from across the European Union. In February there will be an election in Germany in which the far right AFD Party could easily come second to the Christian Democrats, with the Social Democrats and Greens having been in coalition, finding themselves in the wilderness.

Following the collapse of the French government, things are, to say the least, unstable, and the far right is on the move.

This, in fact, is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a movement afoot that is looking – sometime totally unrealistically – for immediate improvement in both living standards and the delivery of public services.

There are no elections due in our area in 2025, so this state of affairs will remain at least until May 2026.

It matters because political parties can play off each other. If the “don't blame us, we’re not in charge" message is conveyed over and over again, it's not surprising that people are confused about just who has control or whether anyone has a clear direction of travel.

Even if one political party had overall control of the City of Sheffield, it would be a massive ask, given the lack of resources, to bring about that dramatic shift. Even more difficult in the confused compromises and buck-passing which currently presents itself in the city.

The University Hospital Trust has not yet fully recovered from the impact of covid and there are no signs – even with the most incredible treatment, which I know from my own experience is available in our hospitals – of a dramatic shift in efficiency.

Our two large and important universities have found themselves under the financial cosh. Both are retrenching, losing staff and, some would say, a sense of mission.

Let us hope, therefore, that 2025 can see a very different approach from all those with influence to bear; with something to bring to the table and responsibility for the well-being of this great city.

One or two absolutely seminal policy shifts, a tangible and identifiable improvement in some areas of what our public services deliver, and a complete change in tone would at least be a start.

Above all, to try and ensure that despite the difficulty of modern diverse communication and the breakdown of the old forms of media which drew us altogether, we can touch people, inform people and, if possible, mobilise people, to make Sheffield a better city in which to live and work.