I HAVE celebrated Christmas Eve with my wonderful neighbours, wrapped, opened and appreciated presents, welcomed my family, cooked the turkey trinity and appreciated the time off to slow down and reflect on 2016; a year which at times seemed a blur of instability and bad news.

However, in my post-Christmas state of somnolence, my perspective has changed a little and I think that we are just so lucky to be living when and where we do, in a peaceful, tolerant, proud country, a world of growing plenty and a recognition that we can – and are – dealing with some of the greatest challenges across the globe.

So I have vowed in 2017 to spend less time reading the shock horror stories churned out by the media sausage machine and more time looking for signs of hope and progress, of which there were many in in 2016.

Did you know, for example, that scientists in the States have created a new platform for antibiotic discovery that may help solve the crisis of antibiotic resistance threatening to take us back to a pre-1920s age of ineffective medicine?

Or that Liberia was officially cleared of Ebola, meaning there are now no known cases of the virus left in West Africa?

The fight against global (and indeed local) poverty continues, but world hunger has reached the lowest point in 25 years, while the international efforts on climate change gathered pace with the Paris Agreement the fastest (and largest) United Nations treaty to go from agreement to international law in modern history and renewables now accounting for more installed capacity than any other form of electricity in the world, including coal.

The ozone hole that loomed large in crisis thinking in the 1980s is shrinking rapidly and is expected to be fully healed by 2050 while, closer to home, plastic bag use plummeted in England thanks to the introduction of a 5p charge in 2015.

All of this is good news for the marine and land ecosystems and indeed humpback whales were removed from the endangered species list last year, as were giant pandas, while the number of tigers in the wild rose for the first time in 100 years. And, of course, for us Foxes fans, 2016 was an epic year with Leicester City winning the Premier League at 5000/1 odds.

I know 2017 may be different, especially on the sporting front, but my resolution is to seek out and share the good news that surrounds us but is all too often ignored. So here is to a very Happy New Year and a more positive 2017.