Reasons to be cheerful
1. Quality television is back on our screens. With The West Wing underway, a new day for 24 starting within hours, and new series of ER and Six Feet Under just around the corner, the barren days of winter TV are over once again. There may be several months to wait for fresh Buffy, but I can get by until then on the very best America has to offer.

2. There's a new Cardigans album out in March. Yay!

3. On Saturday, for the first time in many years, the nation spoke with a powerful voice. Between one and two million people converged on London to tell the government that they did not want to go to war against Iraq. Never during peacetime has the country seen such a strong expression of opinion. Although I could not be there, I tried to do my part by giving another mass media outlet to many of the speakers at the Hyde Park rally.

We all realise that Saddam may be a tyrant and a torturer with a deeply disturbed psyche, but war is not the answer. With every speech he makes stressing the need to act against Iraq Tony Blair takes another step towards a political precipice. By aligning himself so closely to George Bush on an issue that so many are so strongly opposed to he is gambling with his position as leader of the country.

It is not enough for the country to have protested on this one day. Each day between now and the night Bush launches his military campaign in the name of profit and personal vendetta cloaked in self-righteous propaganda we must remind the government how the country feels, whether by word or by deed.

And when war does come, as it surely and tragically will, it will be up to us to hold Blair accountable for his actions. We cannot be complacent and let him get away with committing this country to an unjust conflict, especially without the backing of the international community. We must make him pay for his cowardice in the shadow of a belligerent and illegitimate American administration.

But Saturday was a good day. Let's make it count for something while we can.