My mum’s so pessimistic, that if there was an Olympics for pessimism she wouldn’t fancy her chances.” The tenth-best joke at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival best captures the sentiment of the country in the year gone by. Can 2013 be better? Each one of us has a long list of things that can be done to fix the country: from publicly hanging the rapists to getting a new constitution.

My wish on this first day of the new year is far humbler — neither as camera friendly as a public hanging nor as studio discussion friendly as a new constitution. The suggestion is simple: can we start focusing on outcomes instead of outlays please?