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Like most self-opinionated journalists, the words ‘I am very sorry, I was wrong” are very hard for me to come by.

We are still enduring the time of year when every other person is doggedly attempting to stick to some sort of diet.

I am delighted to report that, half way into January, my year has begun largely how the last one finished - in a flurry of baked produce consumption, alongside the odd glass or two of booze.

The great ‘screen time’ debate has reared its head again, this time after pediatricians concluded there is no evidence that sitting in front of computers is bad for our kids.

It was little more than three years ago that most of the population welcomed the news we would have to shell out 5p for single use carrier bags every time we went to the supermarket.

Every year, without fail, we are told Christmas traditions are slowly disappearing before our eyes.

Lots of us regularly think about it, yearn after it, even.

We are in the grip of Christmas mania, make no mistake about it.

Like most children born in the 1970s and early 1980s, I spent much of my formative years in shops, the majority of which were independent businesses such as butchers, greengrocers and even the largely long forgotten general stores, where you could buy a chunk of Red Leicester along with a box of picture hooks.

When I was a whippersnapper with a swagger, rather than the middle-aged waddle which defines me today, I couldn’t understand why old people talked so much about their past.

To say our lives have changed dramatically over the past 25 years is something of an understatement.

We inhabit an age of division, where the tolerant centre ground seems to be disappearing from under our feet and is being replaced by the increasingly shrill voices on the left and right.

There aren’t too many things I excel at in life.

Last week was freshers week at universities up and down the country, a week that used to mean at least five nights of debauched behaviour, powered by cheap booze and very little in the way of nutrition.

“The problem with society today is that people just don’t care as much as they used to”, is something we hear a lot.

Show me somebody who says they can go more than a couple of hours without looking at their phone and I will show you a liar.

There are some things in life that take you by surprise.

Like most people with a people carrier and mortgage, my school days are way behind me.

In the 21st century, we tell our kids that, with hard work, they can be what they want and we really do believe it.