Gallery: Cartoonist Ken Pyne's 2021 in pictures

I could use the same words about 2021 as I did about 2020 in that nothing seems to have changed in two years, with nobody going anywhere or doing anything other than staying at home and drinking more when the pubs are shut while watching TV and being scared by the government, Chris Whitty and Kay Burley.

The plus has been that the locals in Hampstead Village, where I live, have all got to know each other even better – as in the lockdowns they were the only people we met.

I would also single out praise for most of the pubs which kept up a great sense of community spirit (within restrictions) and I would single out Jimmy McGrath, the landlord of the William IV, who deserves a knighthood for services to Hampstead.

It is also great news that there is a revival of pubs, with the Old White Bear and the Magdala, among others in the area, reopening.

It's a great sign of a return to normality and I just hope no more lockdowns destroy that sense of hope.  

I also hope is 2022 is a better year than the last two but I am beginning to think that is wishful thinking and the best I can hope for is, as the virus is never going to disappear, we all find a way of living with it (which we will have to eventually), and some people will stop being so terrified and screaming that they are going to die whenever you come within twenty feet of them. But then that’s not much different from what nearly everyone else wants, I expect.

As for the future – and speaking from a purely cartoonist’s point of view – I hope Boris Johnson survives as he is so easy to draw. You can almost do him blindfold now. I can’t think of one interesting face that will succeed him.

I hope everyone who lives in north London buys the Ham&High and starts using shops (especially local ones) again. And I hope Camden Council, for the first time in decades, starts showing it cares about the people who live in the borough and stop behaving like tinpot Stalinists – again, wishful thinking I suspect.

Anyway Happy New Year.

Ken Pyne is a cartoonist for the Ham&High and Private Eye, among others.