Steve Regan: the King of Hull - A New Year Message

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SO another new year is upon us and many will think there are not great grounds for feeling optimistic. What with Iraq in flames, MRSA still ripping through UK hospitals, a pensions crisis and the property market about to go into freefall, 21st century life hardly seems a bowl of cherries. Then there are the terrible events in Asia to consider - more than 140,000 dead (at the time of writing) because of the killer wave. The tsunami gave us all pause to think about just how fragile is human life.

The wave was caused by the terrible natural disaster of an earthquake but we also have much to fear in the future from extreme weather caused by global warming, a man-made calamity. On low-lying land such as that of Hull and the East Riding, environmental considerations are a big worry. If sea levels were to rise much at all, due to continued global warming, much of these territories would be under water.

Bad things happen, as the victims of the Asian tsunami tragically and cruelly discovered. When our time is up death will often come calling like a thief in the night (or in the early morning), with no warning. But actually, while we should be prepared for death and misfortune (death is, after all very much a part of life), it is unwise to be living in fear of it day by day.

And nor should be too pessimistic about this New Year upon us. Because, despite all the calamities, and all the wickedness done by bad men and women, the forces of good and creation are always much, much more powerful in human society than are those of despair, downright evil (in all its forms) and destruction.

And there is a duty for individuals to look on the bright side and to carry out acts of good and small unbidden acts of kindness. The more that happens, the more brightness and hope occupies the world. In this part of Yorkshire, people are lucky to live among scenery which is attractive but not so spectacularly beautiful as to attract droves of tourists. That is good. There is space here. And Hull is a city of particular character. It has a do-different attitude and, quite a lot of the time, a do-nothing-at-all collective mentality.

When every town and every city in the UK is beginning to look and feel like the next, Hull folk can be proud that their city really is different, even if the city's unofficial motto is nothing more ambitious than I Aren't Bothered.

But be wary of those who push for so-called urban regeneration. With their sinister cog-shaped lapel badges and posh homes in middle class village well outside of the city, what they are actually doing is killing off true culture in Hull.

On the plus side, I've noticed that volunteers are hard at work locally, doing good, mainly. I particularly commend the virtuous Methodist people of the city who have done so much to help the asylum seekers without ever seeking acclaim for their efforts. Great good is done in everyday life by ordinary people, which is why (despite the many problems) Hull and the East Riding are, on balance, happy places, where a sense of community still prevails.

Of course, during this darkened season, under leaden skies, as the dismal 2004 fizzled out, few of us will have felt particularly sunny or optimistic. We might well have been tempted to look over our achievements of the year now past and measure them to be rather meagre. We may well judge our year to have been one series of strains after another, a complete mess of a time, when our lives, emotionally, professionally, spiritually, seemed to have gone into reverse.

Steve Regan: the King of Hull continued here..

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