Morning View: Stability is the best resolution for New Year.

(From Newsletter)

NEVER mind the miserable weather: today is a day for lifting up the eyes and looking forward to a new year with all its fresh possibilities and challenges.

The Old Year had more than its fair share of sour, baleful exchanges, and we endured political stasis while textile and hi-tech jobs haemorrhaged to the Asian economies, and agriculture languished in continuing uncertainty over European policy.

Today, we have the opportunity to make a choice: more backward-looking paralysis, or a forward-looking disposition driven by a spirit of generosity and everyday courage.

Perhaps the symbol of such a turnaround might be Bobby McKee, the Mayor of Larne. Instead of reinforcing mistrust by focusing on the DUP man's UVF links to the past, people should look at both his work and his standing in the town and the wider community.

Indeed, he is all the more to be congratulated for openly acknowledging how he was swept up in the emotions of the time, caught himself on, and sought to serve his community in a constructive manner.

Such a person brings far more to the community than self-righteous critics who simply condemn without ever making the effort to understand how so many of our people said or did things which would otherwise have been totally out of character.