On Christmas Eve it was a pleasure to visit members of the Armed Forces and civilians standing by in Bristol during the firemen’s strike.

I think it’s true to say that the young men and women I met really did not want to be parked up in a draughty temporary barracks when others were with their families.

However, it was a reminder to me that our military is always there for the public when everything else fails.

They can’t strike and the youngsters I met were on little money and certainly no overtime.

These days I generally see the New Year in tucked up in bed with a nice mug of cocoa. However, New Year’s Day generally has an added sense of purpose to it.

After all, it’s a fresh beginning of sorts. It doesn’t last long of course but it is an opportunity to look back on the last 12 months and work out what one would like to do with the next.

In fact it’s not been a bad year for the county overall as we pull out of recession in better shape than many of us had thought possible.

Certainly we’re in a better place than most of the rest of Europe and much of this, in my view, is down to hard choices made early in the parliament.

Looking forward, we have to remain focussed on driving down debt and deficit. Key to this is growing small business to generate jobs, boost tax receipts and lower welfare dependency.

We all get terribly excited about pet projects and campaigns for this and that but in this modern world the biggest thing for any Western government to do on the part of its public is to promote economic vitality, or at least refrain from impeding it. Otherwise, I’m afraid, we’re doomed.

Happy New Year.