Hello and welcome to my new home as ITV political editor

Hello and welcome to my new home. This is where I will live for part of the time, as the political editor of ITV.

I am definitely excited, even a little bit stressed (or at least that's what a groan in my lower back is telling me), because after 10 very eventful years at the BBC, this represents a big move for me.

Some things about the new role are familiar. I was political editor of the Financial Times in the 1990s, and from what I can see the culture and personnel of parliament have not changed quite as much as I might have expected.

Other things are just nice, such as the talented and friendly ITV team (honestly I am not being what younger people would call a suck-up - I speak as I see, as most of you know).

There are parts of my new life which won't be very different from that of the past decade, such as doing live broadcasts and making short films (what we call packages) for ITV's Evening News and News at Ten.

And before anyone mischievous asks, I expect Tom Bradby to be as waspish as Huw Edwards was about my occasional propensity to be a bit wordy (ahem).

I will continue to publish a regular blog, now called Peston's Politics, which can be found at itv.com/robertpeston.

There will be lots of yakking from me as normal on Twitter at twitter.com/peston, and at facebook.com/pestonitv.

The big adventure will be a Sunday politics and current affairs show, Peston on Sunday, which will launch in the spring.

What I don't expect is a shortage of big themes and gripping stories.

The forces shaping the world - the instability in the middle east, the slowdown in China, the rise of new populist parties and politicians almost everywhere - are remaking the landscape of our lives, our living standards, our prospects, our security.

How the government and opposition parties respond to these great uncertainties will be gripping, and vital to all our futures.

Part of what I will try to do is explain how these powerful global currents are connected to the remarkable state of British politics, whose counter-intuitive characteristics include:

1) a Tory party, or at least its members and many MPs, seemingly in favour of exit from the European Union but led by a prime minister and chancellor likely to campaign for remaining in the EU - and whose career prospects depend on winning that vote;

2) a Scotland where the nationalist and separatist SNP is overwhelmingly popular, but where the collapse in the oil price has made it harder to see how Scotland can prosper as an independent country, outside of the rest of the UK;

3) a Labour Party facing the existential threat of a schism between many - probably most - of its MPs on the one hand, and the party's leader and members on the other.

I do not suppose I will get bored while the UK's future in Europe is renegotiated next month, as the Chancellor adapts to an economic slowdown in a budget shortly afterwards, when we have a slew of important elections in May (for national parliaments and assemblies, for English local government, for mayors including London's, inter alia), or during a probable EU referendum shortly afterwards.

As for you, please don't hesitate to tell me here and on Twitter what I am doing wrong and right (you don't normally hold back), whether I am asking the right questions, and what big stories I am missing.

And yes if you feel you have to comment on my hair or occasional tielessness, you won't hear me moan - though there may be bigger things for us to discuss.