A major criticism of the government during the last two years has been over the lack of cohesion and cooperation between departments. Will adding new bureaus and deputies under a HK$95 million restructuring lead to better, more tangible results, or simply more silos and buck-passing?

After two years of Covid-19, the return to ‘normal’ is underwhelming: new cases are still emerging, borders remain closed, and businesses continue to struggle. While John Lee may be focused on uniting our city, there is much work to be done to reconnect – and catch up – with the rest of the world.

The incoming chief executive has shown ambition in pledging to tackle Hong Kong’s lingering issues. His administration should also take a fresh look at the city’s birth rate as an indicator of social ills that need fixing.

Hong Kong’s failure to contain the pandemic revealed a government tied up in its own red tape, unable to make the right decisions and mobilise resources. Reforming governance will be a challenge for the next chief executive, and ‘result-oriented’ John Lee could perhaps start with the simple stuff.

While Beijing holds off filling the spot vacated by John Lee, Carrie Lam has played down the delay by saying the government can manage. But the role of the city’s No 2 is important, with most former chief secretaries going on to become chief executive – could that be why Beijing is taking its time?

Beijing has anointed John Lee as its chosen candidate, and all political and popular opposition has been swept aside. If he is serious about being result-oriented, he must leverage the united front behind his campaign so his team can hit the ground running once he takes office.

With John Lee the only candidate backed by Beijing, doors are opening for him and everything is falling into place quickly and seamlessly. Carrie Lam is also now free to concentrate on the vital task of reopening the city, a job she is well suited to.

Policymakers have consistently ignored children’s needs and rights, and put their health at risk. Offered vaccines late, kept out from playgrounds and schools, and forcibly separated from their carers, children have been treated as an afterthought.

With no meaningful opposition, Hong Kong’s new Legco members were always going to have a tough time carving out an identity. Now, faced with a paralysed administration, deep public mistrust, and an increasingly concerned Beijing, can they ever be more than talking heads on a Zoom screen?

Confidence in the administration, already at a low when Covid-19 hit, has been further shaken by months of rising cases, tough restrictions and policy U-turns. Lam has finally recognised that public patience is ebbing, but in promising to help the city’s finance sector, she risks once again isolating the rest of us.

While the chief executive has likened the city’s fifth wave to a war, it took sharp reminders from the central government for Hong Kong’s authorities to take decisive action.

After intense weeks of food shortages, overwhelmed hospitals and home isolation chaos, to suggest a policy U-turn on lockdown is sure to cause panic. This gaslighting only erodes public confidence.

After repeated school closures, the latest audacity to move a season without consultation or consideration feels like war has been declared not so much on Covid-19 as on our children and their future.

What were Hong Kong’s leaders doing in the month before the Omicron onslaught that they must have known would come? They were caught up in how “partygate” could have brought the government into disrepute, instead of preparing the health care system to cope.

The government’s flailing response to the fifth wave of the pandemic shows an administration that is out of its depth and out of touch with the suffering of Hong Kong’s most vulnerable, including children, the elderly and the unemployed.

The strategy’s success depends on a capacity to effectively and quickly identify localised cases and cut off the transmission chain. But as the Kwai Chung cluster shows, lockdowns, large-scale testing and efficient track-and-trace are not our forte.

Hong Kong has been forced to watch much of the world open up while it remains stuck between ‘zero Covid’ and living with the virus. It is hard to feel festive while families are separated and people fear for their jobs and health as the government scrambles for a response.

The Omicron variant is running rings round Hong Kong’s quarantine system, and the city appears to have run out of ideas. Instead, once again, we are closing schools and hurting businesses and livelihoods.

The public has no stomach for any big talk about government overhauls at a time when Covid-19 is spreading and our children are suffering. Rather than fretting over politics, let policymakers make Hong Kong children’s needs a priority.

Hopefully, by the end of their 21 days, the officials and lawmakers will begin to understand the public anger at tighter Covid-19 measures. The revelations are welcome – it shows that the privileged and powerful are not always entitled to special treatment.

Two years of grappling with Covid-19, in addition to Hong Kong’s perennial problems such as housing unaffordability, have left many feeling jaded. We must all strive to see the world from fresh perspectives. This is an attitude the government could adopt too.

A reception in Zhongnanhai and words of praise from the country’s top leaders won’t get Lam very far if her administration does not begin to solve the city’s long-time livelihood and housing problems.

After an election that saw the absence of the traditional opposition and an infusion of new faces, all eyes should be on the 40 lawmakers elected under the Election Committee constituency.

Lam claims that a low voter turnout in the coming Legislative Council election could indicate high public satisfaction, but her low approval rating and the rise in number of people without adequate housing suggest otherwise.

Covid-19 has upended travel plans and traditions, added to fears and reminded us of how, after so many health crises, we are still failing to protect the vulnerable. This Christmas, make looking to how we can help those in need, volunteering and donating to charities a tradition.

Record low levels of voter enthusiasm should worry the Hong Kong and central governments, even if they won’t be fretting over the election results. The impression that it is a game for a small circle of elites is being cemented with the absence of public engagement.

While more work must be done to put relations back on the right path, the conciliatory tone struck at the summit is an achievement in itself.

With moderate old-timers on the comeback trail, awkward contests indicative of the stronghold of the old boys’ club and a dismal lack of women candidates, Beijing should read this as making a strong case for greater diversity.

While efforts to ensure competition in the upcoming election are welcome, a truly improved system would give lawmakers the political room to do the sort of work that exposed excessive levels of lead in water at a public estate in 2015.

Pro-establishment lawmakers and the government are celebrating a new, more productive era as the legislative session draws to a close. Claims of greater efficiency mean little, though, when the sources of discontent and distrust are as entrenched as ever.