This has been a year in which Britain has shown strength more than weakness

As we stand on the cusp between the old year and the new, so the West – and Britain in particular – stands on the cusp between challenges met and those still to be faced. It has been a sobering 12 months, characterised latterly by soaring inflation, anaemic growth, creaking public services, strikes and political turmoil – a catalogue of ills that could give despots abroad the idea that the free world, with this island nation at its heart, is in decline. But Britain has much to be proud of. And this year’s accomplishments are enough to give any autocrat pause.

Did China’s President Xi Jinping, for example, really imagine at the outset of 2022 that the year would end not with the West buckling under Covid, but his own administration forced into a humiliating policy climbdown by public protest, his country scrambling to cope with soaring infection rates and death tolls that may be so large they are now covered up.

The scale of this reverse was yesterday underscored by the announcement that Chinese travellers would require a negative Covid test before they are allowed to depart for Britain. After years of China’s zero-Covid policies which locked down tens of millions and subjected visitors to harsh quarantines when they were allowed in at all, it is tempting to relish the irony of this latest restriction. But it is probably caution that is behind it, fuelled by suspicions that Beijing – as throughout the pandemic – is not being transparent, and that its current outbreak may even be harbouring a new Covid variant.

Still, we should remember that it remains a restriction, and that in normal circumstances the bedrock of sensible Covid policy is to vaccinate and carry on, not shut down society. Widespread bans are an unwelcome reminder of a draconian approach to Covid which we thought was behind us – one that even China’s autocratic leadership has now accepted cannot defeat a respiratory virus. The year that is now ending has relentlessly contrasted the freedoms our society has enjoyed with the appalling confinement in China. That is a triumph to be celebrated not retreated from.

The year’s response to war in Ukraine has also demonstrated Western strength to another autocrat who likes to think that freedom and democracy is a recipe for weakness. Did Vladimir Putin really imagine that launching his ruthless invasion of Ukraine would prompt not only a lion-hearted response from that country, but also enduring Western unity, even in the face of energy blackmail and nuclear bluster?

Recent years may have given Russia good cause to imagine that Nato was defunct, and that Western values would prove infinitely flexible as long as the cheap gas kept flowing from the east. Instead the West has now shown that it is not prepared to overlook dictators’ attempts to redraw international borders by force. It is a unified position that still has clout among non-aligned powers; China and India have both made clear their tepid enthusiasm for Mr Putin’s invasion. Mr Xi also has a new calculus when it comes to his own military ambitions for Taiwan.

But if the Western response to Russian aggression, powered by America and led in Europe by Britain, has been formidable, it is only a foundation. Britain is still vulnerable to energy price swings. The expansion of renewables is laudable, but domestic oil and gas production needs to be increased, as does energy storage. Militarily, too, Britain is in a state of flux, our Armed Forces seemingly in permanent adjustment to the new age of digital warfare as review gives way to review and procurement programmes too often falter. The one role soldiers seem guaranteed to fill is that of striking workers. Yet their place is preparing for the threats that are proliferating, and not just from Russia. Iran remains a prime terror sponsor, China is determined to assert itself. Instability is fueled as the certainties of yesterday – like cheap food and energy – fade.

Faced with all this, it would be easy to despair. But despite the turmoil at home, this has been a year in which Britain has shown strength more than weakness, helming a reinvigorated democratic alliance. In that signal achievement, and the resolve it exemplifies, there is purpose for the present and comfort for the future.