2008 has been a rollercoaster ride. In the earlier part of the year the Government was on the back foot.

And then came the global crisis in capitalism (never thought I’d type out that string of words without being laughed out of court) and the Prime Minister was transformed.

Whole swathes of the banking sector have been, in effect, nationalised. The State is pumping in huge sums of money to keep the economy working and credit flowing. But, despite these efforts, we know that we face a recession next year where the economy will contract and unemployment will rise.

What is happening is not unique to the UK. The looming recession is global in nature and our first task is to manage our way through, hoping it will be as short and shallow as possible.

People in times of crisis look to the Government for leadership and, so far, the Opposition parties have produced no convincing alternatives.

I am writing this on Thursday 18 December having just left a meeting with Peter Mandelson in his office in the Department of Business and Regulatory Reform. He wants to part privatise the Royal Mail and bring in an outside partner, perhaps the company TNT, to help with “modernisation”.

Ministers have said this is in line with our manifesto commitment to keep a publicly owned Royal Mail. An outside partner, they say, would not change that status. Complete baloney!

It is like giving Sky a 45% stake in the BBC and then telling people the BBC was still a Public Corporation.

In any event, the Labour Party Conference this year (2008) called for the retention of a “wholly publicly owned Royal Mail”. This formulation was accepted by this year’s National Policy Forum. If words mean anything at all, there should be no question whatsoever of bringing in a “partner”.

The Government’s announcement was made five days after Peter Mandelson received the report from Richard Hooper who had been asked to look at the future of the Royal Mail. Hooper said the present set up was not sustainable. That doesn’t surprise me one bit since the Government’s policy has been deliberately to put the Royal Mail at a disadvantage to encourage competitors into the market.

2009 looks like being a challenging year. Fortunately, the Government has dropped plans for direct elections to police authorities. The police feared, probably with justification, that politicisation would follow as surely as night follows day.

On the bright side, we have some good legislation in prospect. The Savings Gateway Bill will help people on modest incomes develop the savings habit. For every £1 saved, the Government will contribute 50p. (It is time limited and has a savings cap). The account can be opened from 2010 at a Post Office, Building Society or Credit Union. This is the kind of thing we should be doing.

2009 is also the year we finally get out of Iraq. As I type these words I think of all the lives that have been lost. Our brave servicemen and women and the innocent Iraqis who have perished.  

The Prime Minister has promised an Iraq Inquiry once our troops are back home. I agree wholeheartedly with this. There are lessons to be learnt.

In Afghanistan, we battle on. A recent speech by a former Minister responsible for the region gave me pause for thought. In a speech he made in the Commons a few weeks ago, after he had left the Government, he said Afghanistan was corrupt from top to bottom. I could have told him that years ago.

Unless corruption, which is embedded, is dealt with there can be no long lasting settlement or solution.