“Pour me another, lets toast the
new year
Here’s to a better, put fizz in our cheer”
Tonight’s not for sorrows, no
mulling old wounds
Come banish our troubles, lets sing some new tunes
Caught in the present is a moment to
choose
To look forwards or backwards, to win or to lose
If you comfort yourself holding what’s past
This precious moment of hope won’t last
Grasping the future and its
unknown way
Could bring success and many a wonderful day
The past is well trodden where we
know the ending
The future is for moulding, for shaping, for bending
As last year expires, with hopes and promises broken
Change things this time , leaving resolutions unspoken
So pour me another,drink to the new year
here’s to a better, put fizz in our cheer
If your life is a drama you can
change the plot
If your friends are the actors you can recast the lot
If people around you are holding you back
Tell them you’re changing, cast aside their rack
Lets hold on to new clichés that drive
us to more
Lets venture out from behind that closed door
We can stretch for the stars and strive
for the sun
We can soar with the wind making life more fun
You are only out of the game when
you give up the play
So write some new words so you have a new say
Aim for something better, embrace the best
You may fall short of target  but gain from the quest
So cast off the old
Live a new dream
Grab the future foretold
Mine a new seam
So pour me another, lets toast the new
year
Here’s to a better, put fizz in our cheer
I know tomorrow can be better than today
Let the future  empower us with its  new way
The future is only ours, my friend, if
we want to race it
Tonight is the night to embrace it
So pour me another, lets toast the new year
Here’s to a better, put fizz in our cheer
December 31, 2019
A Happy New Year, Sir John,
may your diary forever go on,
with views from MarkB,
Lifelogic and Dee,
Dennis Cooper, Fred H, Richard1.
But what a big year
for that bold Brexiteer.
Will he get what he wants?
or will it be pants
after twelve months of worry and fear.
Stay strong, Hope and Tad,
-it cannot be bad.
PM makes a hash
– a Tory whitewash!
He never would be such a cad.
To Andy, mh, M in C,
great changes for you there will be.
Keep sending your views
so us you amuse
until we are totally free.
Now the decade ahead
Will be welcomed by Stred,
L Jones and cynic,
Simeon, Dominic
with EU rule finally shed.
(With apologies to Fedupsoutherner, Prangwizard, Everhopeful, Narrow Shoulders, turboterrier and others who presented too great a challenge as regards rhyming)
Happy New Year to everyone, whichever side of the debate you are on.
Our minds are broadened by considering the opinions of others and I, for one, thank our kind host for the incredible amount of time he must spend in facilitating such exchanges which, even in disagreement, should remain harmonious.
January 1, 2020
I look forward to more views from you, POM in Oz. Also we hope you and yours are safe from the alarming fires…I have just a little comfort as my son’s family returned after a few years. However we have relations and friends in several places, so still feel great concern. I doubt we will venture back but enjoyed trips to the other side of the world.
January 1, 2020
Fred H,
A wonderful country. 30 degrees today and wall to wall sunshine. Tolerable !! We have had several bushfires within a few miles, but no real threat to our home – just a very smoky atmosphere.
The main downside here is the frozen UK State Pension !! Hope Sir John helps to get this discrimination rectified despite Andy’s objections.
Have a super New Year. Always good to read your comments.
January 1, 2020
Pom – oh dear this will sound like a creepy line, but do continue to give us the direct OZ view on the mother country and the saga.
How long before a box-set of the dramas? H of C, Speaker’s role, the eye from Downing St, the interminable BBC propaganda, the polls, the vilification, the clenched fist of Boris’ success? The North -South divide, the intelligentsia, the thick, the marxists, the Lady and the Judges…..I’ll stop there – script writers get cracking!
January 1, 2020
Fred H,
Will do. The embarrassment caused to the reputation of the UK by the political shenanigans has diminished somewhat since Boris gained control. Any failure to deliver the Brexit envisaged by Sir John, and most of us writing here, will undoubtedly be detrimental. Boris can start by telling the EU that, other than independently agreed financial obligations, there is no divorce payment as it is totally unwarranted.
January 1, 2020
Our minds are broadened by considering the opinions of others and I, for one, thank our kind host for the incredible amount of time he must spend in facilitating such exchanges
Agreed, such an informative and thought provoking way to spend time.
Happy, healthy New Year too each.
January 1, 2020
Thanks, Pominoz. You speak for many of us.
We’ll be down your way this year, and we wish you and everyone there safe and well.
Thanks, too, to Sir John for allowing us to let off steam/praise/pontificate/etc. Some might well have burst at the seams in rage sometimes during the past year, if he hadn’t been here as a safety valve!!
January 1, 2020
Happy new year Mr Redwood
I see you are also a talented poet !
January 1, 2020
Happy new year John and Pominoz. Great poems from you both. We have the chance to make 2020 a great start for a wonderful future. Let’s grasp it.
January 1, 2020
Cheers
January 1, 2020
Happy New Year 🥳
January 1, 2020
One I don’t wish a Happy New Year is Sadiq Khan for in his NY message he said….
‘Tonight we have shown London is proud to be a global, European city ‘
He always forgets or more likely chooses to forget that London is the capital City of the UK including England’s capital city. Someone needs to remind him about it.
January 1, 2020
A Happy New Year to you Sir John.
January 1, 2020
You could not want a better toast to 2020, a very special New Year!
We now have a real opportunity to make our country prosper: let’s hope our new government grasps it with both hands. Lucky for them they have our host looking over their shoulder to keep them on the straight and narrow. In many ways I would be happier if he was on the inside track, but I think there is a great deal to be said for a really well informed and articulate critic on the touchline.
January 1, 2020
William . . . .well the touchline linesperson (!) in football is ignored unless the ball goes out of play – and even then might be overruled by the Ref. In this ‘game’ I’m none to sure who the Ref is, and our host linesperson will be ignored if his opinion doesn’t suit. Welcome to democracy UK style.
As to a toast, i’m interested to see WHO becomes toast if outcomes aren’t as we wish.
January 1, 2020
With 2020 vision we can achieve great things in future!
January 7, 2020
Happy New Year to you Sir.
January 10, 2020
You too sir