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Our lives are shaped by the stories we tell each other passed down from one generation to another and from one year to the next. Aboriginals call this handing down of wisdom songlines,

tracks that connect far-flung communities, past, present and future. So, what have we learnt in 2021 that might help us navigate 2022 and beyond? The Trust recession Trust is the lubricant

that keeps the world moving: it is the essence of personal relationships, government, capitalism, even democracy itself. Without trust nothing much happens with the possible exception of

naked self-advancement. One of the starkest lessons of the pandemic is that countries where the population has a high level of trust in their government (and each other) to do the right

thing have fared better in dealing with the virus: South Korea, New Zealand, Sweden. Others like the UK and the US have fared less well. Leaders who fall prey to tendentious ideological

pressure from those who argue that wearing a mask threatens their freedom have vacillated with lethal consequences. (My late mum, a Polish WWII partisan who spent nearly two years in a

Soviet Gulag, might quibble with this definition of loss of freedom but no matter.) The virus has chased us from pillar to post. Our leaders have failed to prepare, failed to confront and,

unless they learn the lessons, will fail to develop a coherent approach to future health threats. Left to them, self-styled libertarians in the UK and the US would apply a kind of

epidemiological _ laissez-faire _ or let-it-rip approach to the next pandemic in pursuit of some illusory threat to our freedom. This is a world governed not by our respect and concern for

each other but by self-indulgence. The FT’s Martin Sandbu argues persuasively that future pandemic planning should follow the lines of military war games with detailed, widely discussed and

predictable plans. This would include stepped restrictions as well as support schemes.  This would have three benefits: minimise economic damage because businesses will know what to expect;

smooth decision-making and reduce the political cost of acting early. It ’ s basic housekeeping. Will it happen or will we just move on, grateful that it ’ s over? Gloom and Zoom Many of our

lives have been shrunk to the size of a desktop or smartphone: online learning and the Zoom culture has replaced the less predictable but ultimately more satisfying flesh and blood

encounters that make our world go round. A recent study of 5,400 Finnish workers (and a similar one in the Netherlands) found that the longer employees were apart during the pandemic the

more their trust in colleagues fell. Not being able to wander over to a colleague to check on progress or brainstorm makes us feel less in tune.  Physical contact matters. Absence does not

necessarily make the heart grow fonder. The Zoom culture has its benefits, most importantly perhaps because it gives (some) in work, especially working parents, more choice. But

communicating from behind a liquid crystal display emphasises distance and reduces empathy. If we feel neglected, a visit, eye to eye contact and a hug, can reassure us. But during the

pandemic when just living, getting through the day, keeping the kids busy, juggling Zoom meetings, housework and the umpteenth lateral flow test is all we can manage, that becomes harder. We

are, after all, primates. We have evolved in colonies, hugger-mugger, grooming each other and watching our backs. Trust is built and maintained in the intimacy of the troop. 2020 a

rehearsal for 2024 On a broader level, a study in America by the Pew Centre for Research has found that while 45 per cent of Americans in the mid-1980s believed that “most people can be

trusted”, this has now dropped to less than 30 per cent. America is not alone in experiencing a growing trust deficit, but it is by far the most alarming example. Talk of the next civil war

has moved up the scale from fanciful to “not all that unlikely”, fuelled by the lethal combination of guns and the Twittersphere. President Joe Biden’s speech on the anniversary of the

storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2020 by thousands of Donald Trump supporters was the first sign that he finally grasps the very real threat posed to American democracy. These rioters

(supported by a not inconsiderable number of Republican leaders) believe the 2020 Presidential was stolen by a Communist-led conspiracy as do up to 60 per cent of Republicans. There is

growing evidence that 2020 was just the rehearsal for 2024. The next time will be better organised and better-led led by a Republican party which, with a handful of exceptions, has

capitulated to Trump’s grab for power by any means. 2021: a good year for the bad guys Putin in Russia, Xi in China, Erdogan in Turkey, Lukashenko in Belarus, Orban in Hungary, Maduro in

Venezuela — they’re all still in power and gaining ground. Ordinary citizens do what they can to stand up for themselves: pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong; protesters in Myanmar; Uyghurs

in Xinjiang. The Kazakh leader’s shoot-to-kill warning after days of protest at rising prices and corruption could not be clearer: dissent will not be tolerated. But we don ’ t have their

backs. The West has lost the will to defend democracy. Outplayed on the ground and outfoxed on social media whose commanding heights the bad guys now control we look and sound defeatist. Our

ignominious retreat from Afghanistan, Russia ’ s predatory behaviour pretty much everywhere, the interception of civilian airlines to capture political opponents, the murder in plain sight

of journalists who speak out — these small deaths of freedom are going unchallenged. Free Nazanin My person of the year is Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife Nazanin has been held by the mullahs

in Iran since 2016 on spurious charges of plotting to overthrow the government. The way in which he held out on hunger strike outside the Foreign Office for 21 days exemplifies the quiet

dignity of the unsung hero. Two years ago, he camped outside the Iranian embassy for two weeks. That resulted in getting his daughter home. He was hoping the same would happen this time. The

Iranians have told the family that Nazanin is being held because the UK refuses to pay an outstanding £400 million debt it owes to Iran from pre-revolutionary days. Many years ago, I was

part of a delegation that went to see the then Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson to plead for tougher action in the case of Anthony Grey, the Reuters man in Beijing held during the

Cultural Revolution by the Red Guards. “Don’t rock the boat” was the Foreign Office advice. Grey, like Nazanin, was a political hostage. He was released after 27 months; she is still being

held nearly six years after her arrest. Holding a woman (and child) hostage is despicable. But the British Government’s foot-dragging is inexcusable. IT ’ s the planet stupid Butterflies are

vanishing. You see fewer of them in fewer places as the destruction of habitat sweeps on. According to Butterfly Conservation nearly 70 per cent of species in Britain are declining. Milder

winters and colder springs have taken their toll. Three of the 14 warmest years in recorded history have taken place this century. Butterflies are crucial to the cycle of pollination and

life. So, we ’ ve set out to do our bit. We ’ re creating a small chalk-rich butterfly bank here in the Chilterns, seeded with butterfly-friendly species like Red Valerian, wild Marjoram and

the common Knapweed.  As summer hoves into view we shall await the arrival of the Dark Green Fritillary, the Duke of Burgundy and the Dingy Skipper. 2022 will be better. We can make it so.

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