From Team GB success to Starmer’s wobbly regime – 2024 has been a year of ups and downs

A new hope

FEW will shed many tears for the year just gone.

We have to hope, as the old song says, that things can only get better.

That’s not to say 2024 didn’t have its moments.

Team GB triumphed yet again at the Olympics and Paralympics.

Keely Hodgkinson became a household name.

So, in darts, did teenage genius Luke Littler — and lightning Lando Norris in F1.

And our Lions came so close, again, to winning the Euros.

But for many it was a gruelling 12 months.

That includes the King and Princess Kate, who have both fought cancer with immense courage.

And, sadly, the new mood of national hope — as Labour, promising change, replaced the battered Tories in July — has far from been vindicated.

We will give the new Government credit for sparing Sun readers a fuel duty rise and for making the first steps towards NHS and planning reform.

Both are vital. But both need far more progress in 2025.

Those aside, Keir Starmer’s regime has made error after error.

From scrapping OAPs’ winter fuel payments and handing the proceeds with no strings attached to militant rail unions, to punitive new taxes on family farms and job-creating businesses, many already barely surviving.

Economic growth, buoyant under the Tories, is at net zero.

When the PM promises that he will make Brits richer in 2025, how?

The rises from October’s disastrous Budget have not yet taken full effect.

And unless the Government is prepared to slash the bloated State sector — the exact opposite of current plans — it looks almost certain to raise taxes even higher.

Elsewhere, let us hope a new year sees a peace deal acceptable to Ukraine — and that Hamas finally surrenders in Gaza and returns its Jewish hostages.

And there are sporting highlights to savour too.

Our Lionesses defending their Euros title, England’s “Bazball” cricket heroes playing an Ashes series Down Under and Lewis Hamilton, back to winning ways last year at Silverstone, making his debut in a Ferrari.

Whatever 2025 has in store for you personally, we at The Sun hope it proves a good ’un.

Happy New Year!

A bad look

RACHEL Reeves promised an “iron fist against waste”.

Every pound, the Chancellor claimed, would be “inspected” by the Government to ensure value for taxpayers.

Did she give the nod, then, to the ­Justice Ministry’s £13,000 refit and the hundreds spent on three mirrors?

When it comes to waste, those Justice Ministers need to take a long, hard look at themselves.

On reflection, they now can . . . all at once.