THERE are some common old tricks that tired and lazy newspaper contributors resort to when they’ve run out of ideas. One is to give a humorous account of the agonies of a blank sheet of paper. Another is to take the recent death of a celebrity and use it for a bit of name dropping whilst saying how their passing has affected you immeasurably; think Tony Parsons. But by far the most common – especially in December – is a tedious and self-indulgent review of the year.

So, what has 2016 been like for most of us? Few seriously expected the global political situation to unfold quite as it did. First, thanks to one of the most inept political campaigns ever fought, we’ve decided we don’t want to be a part of the European Union any more.

I’d still prefer it if we had voted to stay but we are where we are and in any case, I’m not convinced that the EU itself will survive that much longer.

Maybe if the Labour Party had a leader at the time, they could have influenced more of the party’s traditional supporters.

There was also a ‘fear’ of refugees. Most of these poor souls would have preferred to stay in their own countries and it must be terrifying to lose everything and have to start again in a strange land. For that I take my hat off to Swindon where a group has linked the town to national City of Sanctuary movement.

Across the pond, Hillary Clinton took a leaf out of the Bremainer book of how to run an election and handed victory to Donald Trump. What a pair …

Not a great deal has changed in the Devizes political set-up. We’re getting closer to the long overdue union of Devizes and Roundway and my old chum Jane Burton is once again our Mayor. We’ve also said goodbye to two former mayors, one of whom spent the last few years of his life under a cloud.

In the background, some services that were previously provided by the NHS are now in private hands and I would expect to see more and more of this over the coming years.

Child sex scandals continue to crop up with depressing regularity. This time it’s football. I got told off a couple years ago when I said that the best people to deal with this are Spear and Jackson or, failing that, Smith and Wesson, but I still stand by that assertion.

Some saw 2016 as a year in which we lost more famous people than normal. The statistics don’t really bear this out but there was a glut in the first few months. Overall, this year has been like most years; great for some, awful for others but, for most, the normal balance of tears and laughter.

A friend of mine often uses the ironic #NothingEverHappensInDevizes on Facebook. It’s ironic because so much does happen here. We have great shows from (among others) TITCo, Devizes Musical Theatre and First Stages. The Wharf Theatre keeps producing good plays and we’re lucky enough still to have a cinema.

We have two successful beer festivals, a food festival, an arts festival, lots going on around carnival plus numerous other events. The choice and quality of food and drink around the town is better than I can ever remember and I’ve no doubt that this improvement will continue.

If you prefer your entertainment to come via the telly then programmes such as War and Peace, The Missing, Happy Valley, Rillington Place and Life on Earth 2 remind us of what a bargain the licence fee is. I know some people look down on the box but it contributes so much to the zeitgeist that you must be missing out if you avoid it. If someone mentions baby iguanas, most of us will get the reference. And let’s not forget the good old-fashioned fun provided by shows such as Strictly and I’m a Celebrity.

Like every year, 2016 was a proper old mixed bag and our world continues to appal at times and astound at others. I would expect 2017 to be pretty much the same.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year.