2025 end of year review

I would claim that the ‘summer off’ which seemed to extend into November has had a rejuvenating effect. The weight has dropped off – the teeth have whitened. Or as my wife says ‘yuk – will you stop playing with AI’….. rumbled. Actually the request to chat gpt was ‘use this image but make me look 10 years younger and a bit happier’. It still came back with ‘picture of smiling middle aged man’ which seemed a bit harsh.

Anyway as the end of a really bizarre year comes to a close I am trying to keep smiling. The first year of Trumpy has in many ways been more dangerous, myopic and downright effing obnoxious than we feared. Extra judicial murders – fomenting a rise in racism and nationalism, stoking hatred against the trans community and selling the Palestinian’s down the river…. tariffs making even his core voters poorer. Western governments still trying to claim they have a positive relationship with US while being derided. It would seem hopeless – but Mamdani in NYC and other electoral losses give me hope for 2026. The mid-terms will hopefully see both houses flip, rendering him impotent for the remaining time in office. Just got to hope the damage he does on the way out can be limited.

We see the Trump playbook at home too of course – the summer of ‘raise the flags’ racism, the constant hounding of asylum seekers and then anyone of colour, and recent attempts to co-opt the church going community behind some bat-shit crazy notions of rescuing christianity….. at least Farridge has done his usual and gone into ‘sleep mode’ now he’s been exposed. He’ll resurrect himself when he thinks we’ve all forgotten. And the problem is we do seem to collectively have very short memories.

It’s still difficult to make any real judgements about the state of domestic politics away from the noise of migration. The budget – has some positive impacts particularly around child poverty and public sector wages. There are positive moves around national youth strategy and plans to end homelessness. It also seems to have protetcted much of the planned infrastructure investment – although the business sector has been lukewarm at best. Public services and local government remains under the most intense pressure and there is remains no real plan to address the costs of social care.

Drug related deaths continue to rise inexorably – while the in-treatment population also grows. We know that being in treatment is a protective factor against drug related harm and death BUT we expect an unhealthily limited pool of providers to work miracles while hamstringing them with short term funding and legal constraints that make it impossible to offer life-saving interventions. So there are still no safer injecting sites in England or Wales, numbers of people who use opiates being funded for residential rehab continues to tank and the prison system is on the verge of collapse. All of this fixable – and relatively inexpensive. And let’s all be optimistic that the new responsibilities around supporting people with ‘co-existing’ mental health and substance use conditions will actually be taken seriously. We’ve done some great work in a number of areas developing pathways and approaches – and are ready to help.

So as 2025 draws to a close I’d particularly like to thank those that entrusted us with work this year: East Sussex CC, Kaleidoscope, Seaview Project, Southampton CC, Phoenix Futures and Survivors Network.

And I’ll round off with my lists of favourite things in 2025:

Best gigs: Anoushka Shanker, Baxter Dury, Nadine Shah and The Beths

Most surprising or memorable gigs: Gogol Bordello and Get Down Services – riotous.

Best new bands: The Molotovs, Gurriers, Ditz and The New Eves

Best musical theatre: The harder they come.

Best play: North by North West – during Brighton festival.

Albums of the year: Sister John, Big Thief, Hamish Hawk and Constant Follower

Best TV: Slow Horses obvs.

Best book: Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver and Secret Doctrine – George Monbiot.

Standout moment of the year: Spurs won a bloody trophy and immediately regressed to being sh*t.