A new year, and we should be looking to the future. I’ve also (appropriately) been looking to the past, though, and pondering how little has changed.

Five years ago: Complaining about the nature of the EU debate and lengthy attempts to explain why the EU is not becoming a superstate (perennial and never-ending discussions, these – the latter covered in five lengthy parts last year: one, two, three, four, five)

Four years ago: Boredom with the EU constitution – which has since, of course, morphed into boredom with the Lisbon Treaty (over which we’re still having arguments, even though it’s now been passed…)

Three years ago: An attempt to explain my political outlook, having caused yet more confusion by not seeming to fall neatly into any of the usual categories, and not being overly consistent in approach. (Something that cropped up yet again just the other day.)

Two years ago: A decision to blog less often, in more depth (which I’ve stuck to more or less, more from laziness and boredom than concerted effort). A possible hint of the growing boredom.

One year ago: Some advice for new bloggers, which all still stands. Trying to pass the baton on to a new breed? Another expression of boredom with the whole thing? Quite possibly.

We now have a new decade, and a slightly reshaped EU – though so little has changed, I have no doubts that all the same arguments will continue. Because the same concerns that faced the EU at the start of the last decade continue to worry at the start of this one: How to reshape the Common Agricultural and Common Fisheries Policies? Which of the near neighbours are going to be allowed to join the EU club, and when? How to deal with Russia? What is the EU’s role in the world? And – most importantly – what is the EU for?

I have a strange feeling I’ll be discussing the same old stuff in another five, ten years, and that we’ll hardly have moved on at all. And in any case, as I noted last year, I’m interested in politics, but I don’t CARE about politics. At the moment, there’s very little to interest me.

So, is there *anything* interesting to look forward to, or is this going to be the third January in a row (and the fifth out of the last six) where I enter the new year largely disillusioned with the principle subject of this blog?