Richard Metcalf's Review of 2014

We are writing the last few lines at the bottom of the page of 2014 with one hand, holding down the nearly full sheet with the other, as the bitter, wintery winds of time start to whip around it, trying to flip the ragged sheet over to reveal the bare, white expanse of January 2015. The dying year will not be missed by Charlie Brooker and many others looking back at the messy record in the history book, a smeary scrawl where every other word was ‘crisis.’ Around the world: Turmoil in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Gaza, Boko Haram, MH17, Ebola, race riots in the US, and even now, in the days since Christmas, 2014 won’t stop throwing ferry fires and plane crashes at us.

This year also put an end to the success of my most read blog post, Pros and Cons of Scottish Independence. Since the referendum in September, the easy hits have stopped rolling in from Google. I suppose I will have to start writing about the 2015 general election to try to boost the flow of visitors which has seen my earnings from Adsense reach a heady 18p.

The Scottish people voted to remain in the UK in September, but more importantly than that, the local elections in May were a triumph for Tooting Labour. Amongst its other stunning successes, the constituency party got its first councillor elected in Earlsfield ward since the eighties, bringing the renationalisation of the railway between Clapham Junction and Wimbledon a step closer. In Wandsworth Common ward, meanwhile, a certain Richard Metcalf got 903 votes, failing to secure a seat on the council but satisfyingly hammering the Lib Dem, UKIP and Green candidates.

The upheaval continued in June, as I relocated from leafy Earlsfield to the concrete jungle of Elephant and Castle, which also meant saying farewell to Tooting Labour Party. And in July, I took up my first position as a proper journalist, pounding the syndicated loans and corporate bonds beat at GlobalCapital, and covering such groundbreaking news as Volvo’s debut hybrid capital issuance.

The passing year was also the occasion of my return to Naples for a week in March, an opportunity to renew old acquaintances, and my first incursion into Ireland on the night of 20^th December. Sadly, I will always remember that arrival in connection with the departure of Joe Metcalf from the world. My grandfather, an ex-soldier, teacher, violinist, fisherman, brewer of beer and maker of pork pies, died the same night. I was glad to have seen him on his feet, sound of mind, and his usual loquacious self, at his 90^th birthday party two weeks earlier, surrounded by family and friends.

Here are the usual new year’s resolutions: Eat more healthily, take more exercise, go for walks in the woods, continue to read as much as possible, write more outside of work, learn something – Arabic? Shorthand? Visit relatives. And here’s another. Grandad was always telling me I should keep up the violin, so I brought mine back to London from my parents’ house after Christmas.

Photo: Takeshi Kuboki