What our politicians should do in 2021, including a busman's holiday Down Under to see what real female leadership looks like

Ardern went hard and early when coronavirus hit in March, locking down her country more than any other nation. She didn't breach the guidelines she herself drew up.

She didn't lose her nerve and change course when the going got tough.

There is now no community transmission of the virus in her country.

Ardern has provided a masterclass in crisis management from which Arlene and Michelle could learn so much.

Sammy Wilson

The East Antrim MP's New Year resolution should be to grow up. He got away with clowning around in his younger years, but it's just not funny anymore.

Declining to wear a mask properly in a plane is showing absolute disrespect to your fellow travellers. It's stupid, selfish and ill-becoming of anyone in public life.

I've always liked Sammy. With his motorbikes and all the rest, he was a real free spirit in the DUP.

But between the schoolboy mask antics and his Brexit contributions, he is becoming a caricature of himself. It's dangerous territory for a politician if people stop taking them seriously.

Conor Murphy

Sinn Fein's finance minister needs to start the New Year by saying six simple words - Paul Quinn was not a criminal. Weeks after the 21-year-old Cullyhanna man was murdered in 2007, Conor Murphy branded him a smuggler and a criminal.

Years later, he denied that he'd said it, but he was forced to admit he had done so after the tape of his BBC interview was unearthed in February.

He has apologised to Breege and Stephen Quinn, yet he continues to refuse their request to unambiguously state that Paul wasn't a criminal.

Murphy is by all accounts doing a decent job in his department. He is respected by civil servants and others who don't share his politics. But a cloud will hang over him until he reaches out to Paul's parents. As a politician and a father himself, he must finally do the right thing.

Steve Aiken

The Ulster Unionist leader's New Year resolution should be to come up with a strategy to breathe life into his party.

When the DUP was under pressure on cash-for-ash, its main rival failed to make any significant advances.

Arlene Foster's party is vulnerable on Covid and Brexit. But apart from saying 'We took health when nobody else at Stormont would' and 'Robin Swann is a decent guy', the UUP lacks a message.

Doug Beattie is a consistently strong media performer, but few else are. Disgruntled moderate DUP voters are much more likely to migrate to Alliance than to Steve Aiken's party.

Colum Eastwood

Colum Eastwood needs to keep his foot on the gas in 2021. The deaths of John Hume and Seamus Mallon showed the well of sentiment from which the SDLP can still draw. Combine that with a fantastic result in the last Westminster election plus a frontbench team which outperforms everybody else's, and Eastwood's party is back in the game.

He is certainly boxing clever. He has shown the clear moral differences between his party and Sinn Fein, yet he has ditched the SDLP's previous blether about living in a post-nationalist world which totally failed to connect with voters.

He has also championed issues on which Sinn Fein would normally make the running. If he maintains the momentum, more gains will be on the table for his party in the May 2022 Assembly election.

Jim Allister

The TUV leader's New Year resolution should be to keep toning it down if he is to capitalise on the DUP's current misfortunes.

Jim Allister is at his best when he is forensically laying bare hypocrisy, incompetence and ineptitude at Stormont. He is at his worst when he snipes and insists on always having the last word.

There was a very telling moment during a BBC Spotlight debate in October. Sinn Fein's John O'Dowd quipped that the biggest decision the TUV leader had to make every day was what tie to wear. I waited and waited for Jim's barb back, but it never came.

LucidTalk's last opinion poll showed support for his party has doubled to 6%. While Allister is never going to return to Stormont with a legion of MLAs, he has a chance to have some company on Assembly benches. I suspect he knows that and, in 2021, we will see Jim continue to go against the grain and rein it in.