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Fact or Fiction: Do New Year’s Resolutions actually Work?

New Year’s Resolutions: Just what is the point?  I used to hate the idea of resolving to do something good just because it was a new year. And yet there seems to be something magical about the stroke of midnight on December 31st: Many of us pledge to get fit, save money or stop smoking. Having witnessed family and friends make dozens of failed attempts, it’s tempting to think that Oscar Wilde had it right…

Resolutions are “pure vanity. Their result is absolutely nil”. Oscar Wilde (1909), The Picture of Dorian Gray

What are your New Year's resolutions?
These days I’m less of a resolution-hater. In fact I’ve actually quite warmed to the idea, and I’ve even made myself a few New Year’s resolutions for this year: To start writing a book, to change my gym routine and to make sure I have more fun! But will I just be like everyone else; starting with good intentions, but disappointed and disillusioned a couple of months down the line?

Psychologists have tried to answer these questions and a team of researchers from America did some intensive work to find out the secret of sticking to New Year’s resolutions. Read on to find out if you’ve got what it takes to carry through on your resolution…

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Breaking News: Bomb Threat to Trowbridge, Wiltshire!

Trowbridge locals look on in disbelief - "Why can't I get to Poundland!"...
Trowbridge doesn’t seem like a likely target for terrorists. But yesterday, the centre of the town became ‘locked down’ as bomb disposal squads investigated a ‘suspect bag’.

I like the place, but a lot of people don’t. It’s the official county town of Wiltshire, a beautiful and historic region, yet Charles Moore from The Spectator described Trowbridge as a town lacking any “sign of talent, originality, workmanship, beauty or local pride”. He said the locals are “tattooed people shuffling round”. Even former front man of The Stranglers wrote a disparaging (but rather amusing) song “Don’t put me on a slow boat to Trowbridge”.

So it was with some surprise that yesterday, my afternoon shuffle to Asda was rudely interrupted by a police cordon and bomb disposal squad… Read more