It would be easy to look back on 2021 and think that the only thing that had happened was Covid. As with 2020, it dominated our lives, affected families, work, school, holidays. And just as we started to believe that we had turned a corner, a new variant emerged that made Christmas feel we’d stepped back in time a year.
Yet we would be wrong to think this – and reading our review of the year in this issue really brings home just how much continues to happen, in spite of us all living through a global pandemic.
Whether it be the contentious infill policy that seeks to create desperately-needed social housing, but on often cherished open space, or the divisive Low Traffic neighbourhood zones that can seemingly pit one road of residents against another, the hard work of our young Southwark residents in their exams – achieving so much in spite of the disruptions Covid has wrought on their education – or the efforts of our local football club Millwall to climb the Championship table and even to function without fans for much of the year – life continues as richly as ever before.
At the start of the pandemic, we launched our Southwark Angels pages, which were originally intended to show our readers the work that was being done in our community during the crisis. But we have kept these pages going, in order to highlight the amazing things that take place in Southwark – whether they are Covid-related or not.
This coming year will see local elections and we have exciting plans on how to cover these – watch this space. We continue to believe that local politicians work to improve the lives of ordinary people, in spite of inevitable mistakes and sometimes misguided policies. And we will work to bring you all of the candidates’ views, in order that you can make an informed decision about how to cast your vote on this most important of democratic processes.
For us at the News it is a privilege to bring you the stories from your community each week, and daily online. We are proud to champion you, to scrutinise local government and to be London’s only independent paid-for newspaper. Thank you as ever for your continued support.
We would like to wish all of our readers much health and happiness in 2022 – and please keep reading us!