Shropshire’s Lord-Lieutenant: My hope for a bright 2021 for all residents

I feel like a racing pigeon sitting in a basket waiting to be liberated, I want to be freed of constraints, do a couple of circuits, get my bearings and go hell for leather back to home and normal life.

In the meantime I will continue to Zoom, Teams and Skype as otherwise the world is going to leave me behind in my avian make-believe world and the great Covid-19 will knock me out of the sky.

The past three months has seen us through stages of hope and despair as we lunge from freedom back into captivity. It is a mystery how we keep up with what we are legitimately allowed or not allowed to do. Living on the Welsh border complicates matters somewhat as you need to consider an all-English route including loops to avoid crossing into Wales.

• See the latest coronavirus news here

I have been having regular meetings with my fellow regional Lord-Lieutenants.

We discuss and help each other with ideas of how to cope with anything from virtual royal visits, to how we are going to present delayed British Empire Medals and Queen’s Awards, to the difficulty of recruiting magistrates.

We also talked a few weeks ago about ways to extend the reach of Lieutenancies to younger people.

I am a dinosaur when it comes to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. but slowly I am being bullied out of my comfort zone by younger Deputy Lieutenants who understand the value.

I was invited to attend a webinar presented by The Queen’s Private Secretary to discuss and start thinking about how we might celebrate the Platinum Jubilee 2nd-5th June 2022 in our counties.

I have memories of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012 that for Shropshire happened at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford. HM The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh attended and watched a parade by 5,000 local school children.

I now wonder how we can possibly equal that performance and will probably have many nights churning it over in my head before coming up with ideas.

I have had the challenge of finding a new part-time PA as Karen who has corrected my spelling, grammar and proofread meticulously for the last two years has sadly decided to retire.

Perhaps I will no longer have to dread her eagle eye scanning my work and always without exception finding some sort of error, but be prepared because unless her replacement has the same skills, I am doomed to make mistakes.

I have been so pleased by how many of you have appreciated the cards I have sent to thank those who have gone the extra mile, by helping and caring for the vulnerable, carrying on educating in innovative ways, supporting with food parcels, making scrubs, masks and PPE and many many other kind and different ways.

At long last, as confidence in the new vaccine grows, invitations to get out and about during next year are starting to arrive.

I am hopeful that maybe the black pen can stop blotting out engagements made in my diary and for real we are on the way to recovery.

My Deputy Lieutenants and I are making preparations for a Garden Party in Buckingham Palace style in June 2021 to celebrate with some of the Shropshire heroes of Covid-19.

Christmas celebrations this year will be a very welcome bright star amongst all the dark days we have been through.

I wish all the Shropshire Star readers a very Happy Christmas and I am sure we are all looking forward to the day in 2021 when we can enjoy going out and hugging our families and friends again.