2022 – An Annus Horribilis?

The late Queen Elizabeth II famously remarked, back in 1992 when her family and the monarchy were beset with troubles, that it was her annus horribilis (horrible year) and, in a classic case of understatement, was ‘not one on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure’.

The same could be said of 2022 for all of us.

There was a palpable sense of optimism as 2021 concluded that – despite disruptions, restrictions, new lockdowns and a virus on the march again – things were finally improving and would start going back to where they were, or at the very least, to somewhere different but nevertheless better than the previous two years.

That optimism, such as it was, proved to be short-lived. As the year progressed, the stuttering restart of the travel industry, the war in Ukraine, energy price inflation and a general lack of consumer confidence made it clear that a new-normal was still some way off.