It is impossible, at this time of the year, to avoid thinking about what the New Year will bring. That, at least, is better than contemplating what the old year brought.

We cannot alter those things. We can try to learn lessons from the events of the year. The old battles have been fought, for good or ill.

We must try to anticipate the events of the future and not to be caught out by them.

Some events of the year are likely to be repeated, many problems have not been solved and their impact will be felt as 2002 progresses.

The attempt by almost 500 Eastern European refugees, seeking asylum in the United Kingdom, to get into the Channel Tunnel on Christmas Day is a case in point.

Quite large numbers of Eastern Europeans are employed, on short- term work permits, in agriculture and allied industries for specific tasks, such as preparing potatoes for sale by removing the poorer quality tubers.

Friends who employ such people say they are keen and conscientious workers. It is difficult to find people who are available for such casual work.

It is no longer the case that school children can be employed during school holidays and all the potatoes will be lifted and sold in bags.

The increased size and complexity of the operation means that the harvest lasts for longer than the traditional week.

Anyway, modern sophisticated machinery is not suitable for children, even if they wanted the work.

One wonders about the sort of country to which these asylum seekers are coming.

In the second half of the 20th century a number of immigrants came to this country, mostly from the Indian sub-continent and the Caribbean because there was a shortage of staff in specific industries.

Then it was the public transport system, parts of the NHS and the old textile industries, especially those located in the West Riding of Yorkshire and Lancashire for which they were recruited. Teams went abroad with the task of persuading people to come here.

They must have come with high hopes of a better life for themselves and their children. They undoubtedly did jobs which members of the indigenous population were reluctant to undertake.

Even after all this time, however, they and their descendants are still subject to racial abuse and harassment, resulting in some extreme cases in being attacked, bitten in the face and kicked in the streets of Leeds by violent drunks.

The Eastern European asylum seekers at least have one advantage. They cannot be easily distinguished by the colour of their skin.

Many of the more recent immigrants have been exploited by people in their original countries who have promised them passage to the UK in return for vast sums of money.

Sadly many more are exploited, on arrival, by people who had claimed to be their friends.

It is easy to say that we cannot be responsible for the actions of others in far off lands.

The appalling atrocities in Sierra Leone are just one example of actions we feel powerless to stop.

But we cannot always be proud of the way we behave to some residents in our own locality.

A retired friend of mine, shopping in Malton, fell on ice and dislocated his shoulder. A woman was struggling to get him to his feet and her pleas for assistance were ignored.

No one stopped until another woamn arrived and together they managed to get him walking again.

Perhaps our joint resolution could be to be a little kinder in 2002.

Happy New Year.