The presidency - A chance to begin a real renewal

BEFORE the end of next year we will elect a new president. This presents an opportunity we should take full advantage of. It gives us a chance to express in the clearest terms how we expect to be represented.

It gives us a chance to celebrate the core values we need to return to and protect more vigorously if we are to have any hope of becoming a functioning, equitable society, one of which we can all be proud. A society we might pass to our children with confidence and some small sense of achievement, maybe even a smidgen of pride.

It gives us a chance to say to the world what we wish to be no matter what we have been. The next presidency could be seen as part of a programme of renewal, a programme that recognises that so much has gone wrong but that we have the capacity and the realism needed to recover our equilibrium.