It’s almost time to say goodbye to 2025. What will you miss most? Anything?
To put it mildly, it’s been a year of disruption and conflict from Sudan and Venezuela to Cambodia and Thailand, Gaza and Ukraine. Plus, the economic disruption of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and political disruption across Europe and elsewhere.
In the UK, who could have predicted that by the end of 2025 the most popular political party according to opinion polls would be Nigel Farage’s latest political incarnation, Reform UK? Or that King Charles’s brother, formerly Prince Andrew, would be disgraced and stripped of his royal titles as a result of his association with Jeffrey Epstein? He is now called Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his royal lodgings have been significantly downgraded, too.
But for many people in England, the strangest events of 2025 were the weird flag protests stirred up by anti-migrant activists on the right and far-right of politics. England flags were painted by vandals on roads, roundabouts and even litter bins. Some hung flags from lampposts. This caused disruption and costs for English local councils in the clean-up efforts, including the city of York where initial costs of vandalism came to £16,378 (almost $22,000) or Medway in Kent where the initial c
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