Jill Stephenson

What did you find most encouraging?
No nomination

What did you find most discouraging?
There has been much that is discouraging in the 'noughties'. Britain has become involved in two enervating wars that increasingly seem to have been pointless. Does anyone seriously believe that our streets (and airports) are safer because we have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan? It is, surely, rather the reverse. And even the IRA didn't have (deliberate) suicide bombers, the most random and, therefore, the most terrifying threat of all. Add to that the warnings about climate change and the financial black hole into which we have sunk, and there isn't much to be cheerful about.
     Scotland is a European country – even if England isn't – but SNPers should be gloomy: European leaders with restless regions will not welcome an independent Scotland. The financial crisis has revealed (or confirmed – take your choice) that Scotland, home to two of the major casualties, could not have survived alone even to the painful extent that Britain is currently surviving. The prospects for the medium-term future are not bright, with private business and public services bearing the brunt of the severe contraction caused by the irresponsibility of avaricious (and often Scottish) bankers.
     What is, and will remain, discouraging is that human beings continue to be so awful to one another, particularly in a country that is a democracy (of sorts), with (as yet) a welfare state and a reasonably well-educated population (up to a point). Inoffensive people are terrorised by their neighbours, and both child and elder abuse persist. The coarsening of the media and entertainment, much of it initiated by Rupert Murdoch, has continued apace.
     As things stand, I doubt that there will be much more to cheer about in a year's time, when the first decade of this century really ends.

Which public figure did you most admire?
Barack Obama is in many ways admirable – although his Nobel Peace Prize was premature. In Britain we are not spoiled for choice. Before the last election, the man dubbed 'the real leader of the opposition' was Rory Bremner. He and the Long Johns (Bird and Fortune) have admirably highlighted and lampooned errors, idiocies and instances of corruption in government. The Long Johns' all-purpose dodgy mandarin/banker/boss, George Parr, serves as a proxy for much that is the antithesis of admirable in our society. Locally, Sir Fred Goodwin represents all those poxy bankers who still don't get it – that it is at least tactless and at worst immoral to whinge about their need for bonuses when they have caused current and imminent hardship for millions. The sainted Vince Cable merits a mention for his perceptiveness, acumen and honesty in analysing the financial crisis.

Which public figure did you least admire?
It is probably too easy to choose George W Bush as the least admirable man of the noughties. It isn't only because he invaded Iraq, and did so without any plan for the aftermath. It is also because he was obscurantist: anti-rational and anti-science, and pro religious fundamentalism of the worst sort (although all sorts are deplorable). He encouraged the creationists and other nutters, repudiated the Kyoto agreement and put an embargo on stem cell research. Other 'statesmen' have been almost as depressing. But perhaps it is encouraging that Tony Blair seems about to get his come-uppance at the Iraq enquiry. Gordy, of course, wisnae there, although he has since managed to save the world (allegedly). He is admirable neither as Macavity nor as a self-styled SuperBrown. Then there's the ghastly sight of Putin trying to reintroduce the Soviet Union's repression by other means, Mugabe and Ahmedinejad clinging repressively to power, and Burlesquoni clowning disreputably. Of course one should not condone violence against politicians, but in his case...