I was feeling compelled to set straight Patrick Loxdale, again, until I realised this is Christmas week.

Tis the season of jolliness and goodwill so the required revising of Patrick’s recent anachronistic assertions on integration, multiculturalism, and tolerance will have to wait. As will his less than obvious train of thought that we are not so awful as the Romans; a troubling and regressive comparison that, at some early stage, invites some drilling into. Anyway, Patrick’s Right Field column has suffered under a bit of a self-induced pile-on over the past few issues - this on top of being chairman of the local and beleaguered Conservatives - much like herding a flock of cats at the best of times - extra tricky task right now, I bet. Best of luck, Patrick, and Merry Christmas.

This is also not the week to challenge the antisocial policies embraced by policing double act, Dafydd Llewelyn and Dr Richard Lewis, our hip-joined and lock-stepped Police and Crime Commissioner and Chief Constable. This is the week to celebrate these two men’s eye-catching achievements in reducing racial disparity in Dyfed Powys Police Force’s use of stop and search from eight times to three times - well above the national average to laudably below. However, this is not the week to unpack these statistics to highlight that the dramatic improvement was achieved not by harassing fewer law-abiding People of Colour, but as the result of a jaw-dropping broadening in aggressive policing across the law-abiding indigenous population (general use of stop and search up by 240 per cent). Not the week to critique such counterproductive policing methods. Nadolig Llawen, Dafydd and Richard.

This is not the moment to point out that Plaid Cymru are still not adequately maintaining their Aberystwyth Pier Street office. Even on the Aber shabby scale, a truly disgusting crap-smeared property that serves as nothing other than a visual reminder to where our town ranks in the ‘Party of Wales’ list of priorities and how inconsequential to Plaid are the many campaigns to clean up our outdoor spaces and shopping streets.

Nor opportune to ventilate views that Plaid Cymru’s Ben Lake MP, our region’s Westminster representative, appears only permitted to bang on about the cost of fuel when what we really need are concerted voices securing the economic investment that will again make West Wales a desirable destination – and not Plaid being a significant contributor to Aberystwyth’s reputation as a dirty old town.

Now is the time to set aside issues this column has raised over the past year. Now is the time to put feet up, lick wounds, to catch up on sleep and calories. As an unapologetic idealist, the highlight of my festive season will be the New Year. The turn of an imaginary page, the right time to wash away the turmoils and failures of 2023, another fresh start, the correct moment to grasp the immediate future and savour the uplift found in compiling a brand new mental calendar filled with plans and resolutions. Got to try to get my excellent novel published. Got to be more active - play more sport. Less cake - more fruit. Got to effect meaningful and positive change.

For a valuable benefit of intimate and low population rural Wales is that an idealist can imagine real and rapid change right here - fundamental changes in politics and policing, in social justice, our environment and community lifestyle - progressive changes that would be inconceivable within other British regions. For we mid-Welsh are notorious for thinking apart and living differently. Our ways and means can and do vary from the mainstream. Our hope rightly springs eternal because ‘it is what it is’ does not necessarily apply to us. Our future is in our hands.

I know this is true because I remember arriving in the Cambrian Hills and immediately being struck by how many can-do people inhabit such a sparsely populated area. Such a wide range of practical and intellectual skills available. Willing hands meant real problems were quickly resolved. I recall thinking that the Ystwyth Valley would be the perfect place to occupy in the event of a nuclear war or zombie holocaust. So many capable individuals, so willing to band together during moments of crisis. I had been accustomed to living among self-interested stockbrokers and aspirational advertising executives - not the ideal crowd to be surrounded by at the breakout of WWZ.

So, the next few chilled-out weeks will offer the opportunity to mull over noteworthy issues, to decide which matters to revisit and what other areas of local and national concern might hold our attention over the coming twelve months.

Perhaps issues such as a dysfunctional local democracy in which Ceredigion County Council feel it is wise to use local taxpayers’ hard-earned cash to assign paid staff to lodge lengthy complaints about Cambrian News reporting of local discontent. A shocking and authoritarian turn of events that should register alarm across our county.

Or maybe some examination of whether new leadership of Welsh Labour might lead to at least some policies benefiting these routinely ignored outposts of Wales. Fat chance of that.

So, my sense is that much of my focus during 2024 will be highlighting the need for real revolution in the democracy of mid Wales. As was recently put to me, “the people who represent us must love the area as much as we do as residents”, perfectly capturing the nature of a growing sentiment that we are being continually let down by our elected officials. But let us never forget only we are responsible for putting ineffective individuals into office. And let us not forget that only we get to replace them.

Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda from The Aber Vaults.