Dear John,

Happy New Year! We hope you all had a lovely festive season, but we're barrelling directly into 2025 - so hold on to your hats, and let's get ready to support each other through what is sure to be a rollercoaster year.

The rollercoaster ahead

A new year, a page turned, and it is a pleasure to be back in your company (and inbox) this New Year.

As we leave Christmas behind and step into the bright new world of 2025, I thought it apt to take you through some of the events we can expect over the next few months.

Our friends across the way in Westminster return from their festive break on Monday, giving us two weeks of parliamentary (in)action before a certain lover of fake-tanning will take to the stage at his second inauguration on the 20th of January. As galling as that event will be for many of us it should be a moment to remind ourselves why we must prioritise a closer relationship with our largest and nearest trading partner across the English Channel. 

Entering February, Keir Starmer will be attending his first meeting with EU leaders on the 3rd, exciting times for those of us campaigning for a closer relationship with the EU. We will be watching closely to see how the language of a relationship reset of 2024, becomes the action of resetting the relationship in 2025.

On the 23rd of February, Germany will head to the polls in a crucial vote for Europe and the future direction of the European Union. Current polling has the CDU Party (centre-right party formerly of Angela Merkel) leading the way, well ahead of the far-right AfD party and the SPD (centre-left). Watch out for any last minute interference from Musk and Trump in favour of the AfD…

Best for Britain’s year ahead

Not to blow our own trumpet, but we are very excited about what we have coming over the next 12 months. After a successful 2024 promoting tactical voting to change our government we move into 2025 motivated to build closer ties with our European counterparts and fight the rise of the hard right in this country.

We know that the increasing cost of living affects millions of people around the country and we will do all we can to persuade the Government of the merits of a Youth Mobility Scheme and regulatory alignment between the UK and EU for unlocking growth and enabling the entrepreneurship of British business. We want to see our country's economy growing, our young people reaching their potential and ever closer cultural ties with Europe.

So keep your eyes peeled over the coming weeks for some exciting announcements. And why not tell a friend about the work that we do at Best for Britain, by forwarding them this email? It's never too late for a Christmas present….

Farewell Jimmy

On the 29th December the world lost Jimmy Carter, the former peanut farmer turned 39th President of the United States just a few months after his 100th birthday. Whilst President Carter was much maligned in office, history has taken a much kinder view on a presidency that saw the Camp David Accords deliver peace between Israel and Egypt, the Panama Canal Treaty and the establishment of diplomatic relations with China, whilst normalising relations with the Soviet Union.

In the decades following his presidency, President Carter was an effective advocate for peace, the environment and human rights, winning the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in conflict mediation. A voice of reason from a bygone age of American politics, Jimmy Carter will be sorely missed.

Musk meddles again

Not satisfied with his work in 2024, the meddler-in-chief Elon Musk is making yet another appearance in a Weekend Wire. This week Musk has focused his efforts on the UK, calling for Parliament to be dissolved, Tommy Robinson to be released from prison and accusing Keir Starmer of a bizarre conspiracy relating to his role as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service. 

Musk appears to be a man who has indulged his narcissistic tendencies to such an extent that he now believes he has the power and authority to drive public opinion in the United Kingdom by spreading misinformation. Over Christmas, the Reform Party reportedly overtook the Conservative Party in terms of membership numbers and predictably Farage claimed that his party was now the official opposition. You would have thought an ex-commodities trader would be better with numbers…you only have five seats Nigel!

Red card for Georgia’s new President 

Across Eastern Europe, Vladimir Putin continues to cast a rather ominous shadow. Ex-footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili was inaugurated in Georgia on the 29th of December where he was met with widespread demonstrations by an angry public who are increasingly convinced the election last year was stolen by the Russian-supported Georgian Dream government. 

In November the new Government ended talks with the EU regarding potential accession in a move which sparked widespread protests across the country, particularly in the capital of Tbilisi as Georgians feared they were being drawn back into the orbit of the Kremlin.

On this day in 1960, the Nobel Prize winner, Albert Camus died in a car crash, his philosophy was built on the importance of embracing the absurdity that is life, a very valuable mindset as we move forwards together into this year.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, it is so great to be back and thank you as always for your time and support.

Joshua Edwicker
Best for Britain