Dear 2016,

What is going on with you? It’s only July and we’re bloody exhausted. What are you up to, giving terrorists a platform, allowing despots to rule, letting refugees drown in droves, closing borders and fuelling hate? The stuff you have been dreaming up belongs in the sphere of fantasy, in movie scripts and comics, not on our streets. You should be showering us all with love and prosperity, not rockets and bullets. Where did you go wrong?

Ah – paternity. Of course. 2015 wasn’t a particularly good role model. Neither was 2014, or 2013 and so on. Why not continue a rich tradition?

Weak excuse though. What happened to your backbone? Will this really do? Really, really do? Meaning that this is it?

No. No, and a million times no. We may be exhausted, but we will not give in to hate and terrorism. We will fight back with love and empathy and we will challenge and probe and disagree and mobilise opinion. We may be mute, but we won’t be silent.