The first of these is clearly that something positive comes out of Iraq. Well clearly whatever does happen its not going to be along the lines which Bush and Blair hoped for at the the time of the invasion nearly five years ago. The British have virtually quit the occupation, leaving the south of the country in the hands of the Iraqi security forces..although that is generally accepted to be a bit of a joke. The Islamic fundamentalist groups are simply biding their time. In the north the situation looks different but only because of a gigantic infusion of American troops..who cannot stay forever in a situation where they are clearly performing a holding operation. This may have given the Iraqi factions themselves a chance to grow in strength and stem the tide of Al Qaeda but the killings still go on and I'm pretty sure that when the Americans tire of playing Canute, the country will dissolve into a factional war.
Maybe Iraq will, eventually, cease to exist as one state and revert to the tribal homelands of Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Marsh Arabs it was before the British created it.
My second hope is that there are real, positive moves made on climate change. The two biggest flies in the ointment on getting a concerted world effort going are China and the USA. The US was shamed into signing an agreement it didn't want to sign at the last International Conference in Bali, but when you have an unwilling signatory who just doesn't want to appear to be the party pooper, how confident can one be that the Americans are really going to try to stick to targets..because for the citizens of the USA those targets are going to be very electorally unpopular.
It is one of the world's biggest headaches because it needs all of us acting together to effect any changes in our planet and yet there is not even any uniformity on whether man made emissions are the main source of the problem, thus encouraging countries like the US in its hesitancy to commit to stringent targets.
I hope that whatever political problems lie in the way, every country in 2008 will see the necessity for stringent control of carbon emissions.
In the United Kingdom, I hope Gordon Brown - who began his Premiership so well and finished 2007 so falteringly - will get his act together and get some decent ministers with real intelligence in the key jobs and put the Labour Party back on a firm footing. I think Brown's instincts are better than Blair's - he just needs to ensure he has the troops to carry them through.
And lastly, though there must be so many issues out there, and very parochially, I want to see closure on the issue of Madeleine McCann. I hope the little girl is found, one way or the other, alive or dead - but surely anything is better than a child being spirited off into the night and loved ones never hearing of it or from it again, never knowing its fate. I know many children around the world have disappeared in these circumstances but sometimes it is easier to focus on one as a token of hope for all.
On a lighter note I have just started a fun job as an internet radio DJ and Im enjoying that immensely so I hope that goes from strength to strength in 2008.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas.
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