2022 is behind us – a year characterised by chaos and upheaval

The Voices team was never short of major events to cover, with insightful comment and analysis from our talented columnists, writes Harriet Williamson

Britain was gripped by energy and cost of living crises and then a second winter of discontent with widespread strike action across the public sector (Getty)

Writing for Voices, money coach Talia Loderick urges readers to eschew dreary (and let’s face it, usually doomed) new year’s resolutions. Instead, she advocates for setting a personal “word of the year” to live by in 2023.

In the past, I might’ve scoffed at doing this myself but this year, I’m open to it. I’ll set my word of the year, I’ll write it on a couple of sticky notes, and put them on the fridge, my laptop and the back of my phone. Why? It’s a small way of exerting agency, a non-Brexity taking back control.

So much of 2022 was characterised by chaos and upheaval – from war in Europe and the extreme weather events caused by the ongoing climate crisis, to the circus in Westminster, with three Tory prime ministers in the space of two months.

Britain was gripped by energy and cost of living crises, and then a second winter of discontent with widespread strike action across the public sector. On Voices, we took pride in platforming striking workers – including nurses and posties – so they could give their reasons for exercising the peaceful and democratic right to withhold their labour.

We devoted weeks of coverage to the death of Queen Elizabeth II – beginning with a heartfelt tribute from Sean O’Grady. We also said goodbye to a diverse array of other public figures: Soviet politician Mikhail Gorbachev, Grease star Olivia Newton-John, British entrepreneur Jamal Edwards, campaigner Deborah James, the actors Angela Lansbury and Robbie Coltrane, Pope Benedict XVI, designer Vivienne Westwood and football legend Pele.

It felt like a year of darkness and difficulty for so many, as families up and down the country struggled to come to terms with soaring fuel bills and rising food prices. But there was hope.

We saw it in the form of Lula’s stunning victory over Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, which Jeremy Corbyn wrote about for us from the celebrations in Sao Paulo. We saw it in the British public’s virtually point-blank refusal to side with the government against striking nurses and ambulance crew, something our political sketch writer Tom Peck outlines neatly here. And in the courage of young climate activists during Cop27 – particularly those from the global South most affected by and least to blame for the climate emergency – and of protesters in Iran.

The Voices team was never short of major events to cover, with insightful comment and analysis from our talented columnists, and op-eds from MPs, experts and freelance writers. I’m not expecting 2023 to be any less seismic, with election footing for parties in the UK and US, the coronation of King Charles and the Fifa Women’s World Cup ahead – to name just a few events.

But I do hope for a year of more compassion, decency and recognition of our shared humanity, particularly from those in positions of power and responsibility, who hold the lives of so many others in their hands. So I urge you to set your word of the year, make your resolutions, sack them all off – whatever makes you feel good going into 2023. I’m happy to be proved wrong, but I bet it won’t be quiet.

Yours,

Harriet Williamson

Voices commissioning editor