Well it’s over for yet another year, the El Gordo Christmas lottery, or the Fat One, which dished out €2.5bn (£2.2bn) in prize money, much of it, I’m delighted to write, in the province of Alicante, where it deposited 33 million euro, although it still needs to get much, much, closer if I am to benefit.

Understandably there is lots of Christmas cheer but with the holiday now behind us we look forward to the New Year, 2023, with an indication of what’s to come on Thursday with the Government’s announcement of the third aid package to alleviate the economic and social consequences of the war in Ukraine.