London

Monday, 2 January 2023

Dear Julia Hartley-Brewer,

having seen so many people shouting out about their good intentions and the New Year’s resolutions they are convinced will bring them a better life in 2023, I was wondering what some of the more prominent people, those in the public eye for whatever reason – deservedly or not – wished or promised for themselves. I am sure that many simply repeat those resolutions they made a year ago, and failed to keep, with the added promise to manage it this time round.

I can also imagine some people sitting in their comfortable apartments, sipping on a chilled white wine, relaxing into the evening, looking back over their day, and forming ideas for the coming year based on experience, rather than simple desire. Perhaps one of those people might be considering re-evaluating their speed, their alacrity in jumping to the defence of certain people who they do not know too much about, but who fit a certain muster in their minds: white, influential, rich. Perhaps they will even consider doing a little research before reaching for their pen, their laptop, or their mobile phone, and making a fool of themselves. It is so easy to make a pig’s ear of your own limited credibility when you defend white, racist, child-abusing rapists.

Hopefully 2023 will be better, and not filled with the crash-and-burn which has followed much of your work this last year. Unlikely, but it is said that God, or perhaps Lucifer in your case, works in mysterious ways.

Yours sincerely,