Being already a way into February, most people will have eagerly set in motion their New Years’ resolutions and be in the process of creating a prosperous start to 2011.
However, just before we wave a final goodbye to 2010, let’s take a brief look back at a year that held two budgets, a General Election that students of politics will be analysing for years to come and respectable levels of both grief and joy.
We began the year with a down-the-rabbit-hole adventure in cinema. Alice in Wonderland, a well-loved classic children’s story became a pawn in a worldwide grapple on where and when we watch movies in the digital age.
Odeon, Vue and Cineworld joined forces against Disney, when Disney announced the release of the DVD only three months after the film’s release. Since cinema chains make profit only from the film viewings they were not best pleased. Unfortunately for the cinema chains, they lost to Disney!
March 2010, heralded what was to be Alistair Darling’s last budget. With barely room enough to wiggle, Darling cancelled a plan to increase the IHT Nil Rate Band and froze personal tax allowances.
Disaster in China in April when 10,000 people were injured and hundreds died as six quakes hit Yushu County, Qinghai Province.
And then came May!
May 6th 2010, the UK’s 18th election since the Second World War. Turnout numbers rose by over two million to 29.6 million people voting – a percentage of 65.1. Scenes at Polling Stations were unprecedented when many voters who had been queuing for hours were turned away at the 10pm close and failed to register their vote.
However the result was inconclusive and after a week of drama and speculation Gordon Brown resigned and a coalition government was formed between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems.
Views of dismay in America, as sticky, black oil oozed from the world’s worst ever oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. The same day, BP – the company responsible – was to be awarded for ‘outstanding safety and pollution prevention’.
Back at The Will Bureau, congratulations were given to Callum Morrison and Adele Jameson who both attained great results passing the STEP Foundation Certificate.
In Regents Street, traffic was held up in the carnival atmosphere on the 28th May, when Stephen Fry and hundreds of other expectant shoppers rushed to buy the brand new Apple iPad.
Fugitive gunman Raoul Moat shot himself on the 10th July, after evading police for more than a week. He had previously shot his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart and killed her new partner, Chris Brown and a police officer.
This followed another killer, Derrick Bird, who, in June, shot dead his twin brother and at least one colleague before driving through rural west Cumbria firing seemingly at random at people in towns, villages and on country roads and then killing himself.
In August, The Will Bureau welcomed a new member of staff as Julie Weston joined the team.
The school children were in the middle of their long summer break when it was first announced that 33 miners were trapped underground in Copiapo, Chile. On 14th October after an amazing rescue all thirty three were alive, safe and above ground, having journeyed there in a NASA-designed capsule and wearing a bio-harness designed for astronauts! The jubilation spread throughout the whole world.
November, and after eight years, Prince William proposes to Kate Middleton. They are due to marry at Westminster Abbey on April 29, this year, which has been declared a bank holiday!!
And on that happy note, we said goodbye to the year and venture forth into 2011. As we saw, it was a mixed bag, but in the words of Ronald Reagan, it was ‘all in all, not bad!’
