Come with me to Santa’s grotto to discover the state we’re in

Roger Carr

It is an asp...
Ah! I see you have already said it.

"It is an aspiration towards a pretend world, a confection every bit as make-believe as Santa’s grotto."

Wilhelm

Ron Piddle

Do yourself a favour and get a haircut, you look like a 15 yearl old slacker.

David Bouvier

Wilhelm - what made you feel like making an angry comment specifically here and now?

This article made me sad - and it is good to see Mr Liddle writing for once without a snide or clever tone. I suspect he too is saddened by this reflection on where we are now. Good piece, Rod (if I may call you that).

David V

Don't be such an old fart Rod. The fact remains that you and your family, and millions like you in the 'liberal, developed, democratic world', can celebrate Christmas any way you like as long as it doesn't involve harming others.

biggestaspidistra

excellent stuff from Mr. Liddle, which indeed should make us all sadder this winterval Hopefully we’ll get over it in time for Kwanzaa.

TimM

Great piece, Rod

The heavy hearted truth of it all made me melancholy.

I was once asked by local authority staff not to take pictures of my own children at a private party in a London leisure centre. I'm sure this is pretty common place now.

I'm of Anglo Iranian descent. My children's primary school demanded to know whether we spoke Farsi at home. When I asked why, they said it was so that they could 'celebrate' our culture and language at school. I explained that not all cultures are equal, and that, with respect, I would decide whether or not to 'celebrate' Farsi or Iranian culture with my children. The school response was mute horror. Why would a primary school presume such a role? And what business is it of theirs?

We will all have many examples of the disease of political correctness.

But how do reason and rationality make a comeback?

Wilhelm

David Bouvier

Take a chill pill.

I mentioned Ron Piddles long hair because its the truth, if you cant handle the truth, thats your problem, deal with it kid.

Alexander

"Well, indeed; but whose fault is that?"

I'm not sure lumping in Furedi or indeed anyone else on the left who have the good sense to recognise madness when they see it is helpful. Furedi does, at the very least, deal with these important issues in a forthright and intellectually honest manner - and doesn't sound like a pub-bore like many critics on the right do.

Marc O'Polo

It is pathetic. We've become so PC'd-up, we don't know our arse from our elbow.
And Wilhelm: is that "humour"? That's the sort of jibe I last heard in the school playground. You sound like a fifteen year old tw*t.

Wilhelm

Mark Polo Mint

Im having a private conversation with David Bouvier, who asked your opinion ? you werent invited to the party, son.

Anon

I am harmless and uncomprehending of hate; but you see, David V, in this world some of us have no right to breathe; and, when we do, the very act changes the environment - and that upsets any number of people.

So don't tell me I can celebrate Christmas any way I like because somebody's bound to say that what I like is harmful or hateful. You see: it's traditional, and British, and Christian; and it's very, very, beautiful; and it makes ordinary, unabused people very happy (I don't know about abused ones); and it tends to be communal.

And that's all bound to threaten somebody - because we don't even have a country of our own any more; or a right to our own culture; or a right to our own religion; or communities where people can trust each other.

john

It's not liberal it's social marxist.

Expat 44

Nice, thoughtful piece; and a perceptive snapshot of the way the liberal middle class left has got a stranglehold on many aspects of Britons' lives.

It comes from three clear sources:

1. A dislike - amounting to hatred sometimes - of the existing social order and of those in charge.(Think Dennis Skinner and second-rate Speaker Martin)

2. A belief that the system is somehow "wrong" and needs righting. (Think Polly Toynebee)

3.The absolute conviction that they know best and their values must prevail.(Think Harriet Harman)

Call it what you will, disguise it how you try, it's authoritarianism socialism dressed up as bossy 'concern'.

The key word is "authoritarianism".

Britain for me, as for so many, is no longer the country in which I grew up. It's a foreign, depressing and expensive place wher a lot of people seem to fear and hate their leaders, be they in the town hall or Westminster.

The tragedy is that for those inside the cage they either don't recognise what's gone on or are just too downtrodden to challenge it.

Mr Liddle is holding a mirror up to what is going onin Britain. The image you see is your own.

alan

Beautiful, Rod. Thank you. 'It is not by being heard but by staying sane that we carry on the human heritage.' Winston Smith. 1984.

Mcgraw

Its not the world I knew as a child.
Too much molly coddling.
We are breeding a nation of wimps.
When we fell over cut our knees and cried we heard.
Get up boy stop wingeing!
Nowadays its .
Brrr brrr brrr brrr.
Hello Injury Lawyers for you .
Britain was Sparta.
We were raised the "Spartan way" here.
I remember walking home from school every winter in the snow with shorts on, cold knees.
Not mollycoddled and driven in a "people carrier".
No wonder so many kids are fat and asthmatic nowadays.
That was what made us strong.
Running around getting mucky.
That was what gave us an effective immune system.
Good old dirt.
Strange im not a medic but I notice the under 30's Where I work seem to just catch colds
every winter.
The older ones like myself dont.
Of course football and rugby are banned now .
It might make them feel inadequate.
No it will make them feel they never have to face any situation they dont want to.
Problem is sometimes life will throw you into a situation you dont want.
People have to learn to cope for themselves.

This poison did came from were it always comes from.
The limp wristed socialist middle classess quite correct Mr Liddle ,good observation.

David Short

Ho, ho, ho, oops, ha, ha, ha

It's true that the awful middle-class lefties (and that includes working class lefties that made it into the middle-class through degrees in useless subjects like sociology) who really do have scruffy beards and a miserable aspect that draws them to mind-numbing jobs at the Town Hall.

But, as much as I detest them, and enjoy escaping from them to sensible countries (like Kenya, where I am now) they are merely an irritant and easily scoffed at.

I much prefer this hegemony than the one I grew up in in the Britain of the fifties and sixties, when it really was run by red-faced, pudding-faced, arse-faced, braying, inherit houses and furniture, public school boys from old, rich families who regarded power as their birthright and looked upon 'ordinary' people as slaves or pets.

In other words, the kind of people who once again run the Conservative party and who might yet run the country again.

And, incidentally, the people who the Spectator, under its new management and ownership, suck up to unashamedly.

HumeanBeing

Rod's point about the Left's entrenched power base in social services, council departments and education is a vital one. The failings of the prevailing culture were plain to see in Haringey Council's handling of the Child P case.
The question being, how does the Right go about challenging, let alone changing, the culture of these organisations? As far as education goes, it strikes me that the Tory plan to liberalise the rules over who is allowed to set up and run schools would be a good start. Ditto for scrapping the Human Rights Act.

wiggins

Yes. It's a very sad country that we now live in. I'm glad I'm getting on and that my children are adults. They are more acclimatised to this brainwashing than me.

Marc O'Polo

Wilhelm, ("Wilhelm"?!): I am of the Irish sea-faring Warrior O'Polo clan, not the Polo-Mint's, who are a bunch of English interlopers who were so ashamed of the Irish half of their ancestry that they dropped the "O", (as in "son of".) You do me an injustice, Sir.
Actually, your infantile outbursts have a certain skool plaground amusement factor. "Ron Piddle", indeed - 'tis a work of genius!

Ken Bishop

Australia, Kentucky: how can you say this is where "we" are now? Surely you are read overwhelmingly be people who live in the UK? It looks rather as if you had to search around quite a bit to find enough things to be outraged at.

David Jones

I don't see the connection between your various (perfectly valid) moans. (1) Irrational fear of paedophilia; (2) exaggerated reluctance to give offence; (3) rational fear of being sued. How can you say these are in any way related, or all the fault of the "politically correct" classes?

PS Wilhelm: you are having a public conversation, not a private one, silly.

Jacques Lacan

Rod Liddle used to be good.

Wilhelm

Polo Mint squeeeks

''I am of the Irish sea-faring Warrior O'Polo clan ''

You could be Santas elf and live in an igloo in lapland for all I care.

Polo Mint says

"Ron Piddle", indeed - 'tis a work of genius!''

Yes I know, I am a genius, but I didnt want to boast because Im very humble.

Wilhelm

David Jones squeeks

'' Wilhelm: you are having a public conversation, not a private one, silly.''

I was being ironic, so much for the alleged '' famous '' English sense of humour. Ho Hum.

David V

Well it seems to me, 'Anon', that consumer capitalism has done far more to damage the traditional, 'very, very beautiful' Christmas you describe than any number of hand-wringing, leftie dolts. I'd say that the real impact of anti-British or anti-Christian lefties has been pretty minimal. There has been more of an impact, but still a small one, from health and safety fanatics, but that has more to do with avaricious compensation lawyers than socialist ideology.

Winston

Is Britian really this insane? Is Rod Little the only sane one left? What happenned to the British? Were they insane all along?

A. MacAulay

Hello again, David Short! Great to read your contribution. Are you trying to provoke me personally or is it the rest of the world too? Let us accept that we are all moaning at a high level.

Kenya is wonderful as seen from the beach of the Serena, Mombasa.

In Kenya human beings are still used as beasts of burden. The average Kenyan lives in a proto-Dickensian favela squalor and poverty. Here are bred the armed mobs of bandit youths who terrorise and lay waste anything that gets within reach of a machete. The infrasructure is simply the rubble left over from whatever the evil, colonialist British left behind. The political class simply steal everything that isn't nailed down.

Come to think of it Dave, it does all sound rather like Britain, doesn't it? Maybe you're right, so enjoy the sunshine. Ho Ho Ho. Happy Christmas

robert

Thanks for that, Rod. Shame you weren't quite so vocal about the horrors of political correctness when as editor of the Today programme (flagship of precisely the tendencies you're outlining here) you were taking the BBC's shilling.

Patrick Turner

Fully in agreement with the general thrust of the article Rod but 'on a point of order' Christmas is only a Christian festival by imposition. The Winter Solstice has been appropriated by many religions and cultures marking as it does the moment when primitive man breathed a sigh of relief when the sun had ceased to ebb towards the southern horizon and they could look forward to lengthening days and the eventual return of spring and summer. There is not a shred of scriptural or historic evidence relating the birth of Jesus to the winter solstice and it only became celebrated then when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and Christians imposed their observances on the previously 'pagan' festivals.
So you see Rod Jesus may have had nothing to do with it after all.

David Short

Hello A MacAulay, no I wasn't trying to provoke you. I do think you are exaggerating a bit about the poorer side of Kenya. What you describe is much more like South Africa, which might possibly explode and so many people will be surprised on the outside because they have no idea how SA really is.

I don't live in Kenya and never will but I shall spend a lot of time here in the future. Yes, the hinterland is full of poverty, but that's also true of Britain, but in Britain there is a poverty of spirit, and that is not true here in Kenya.

There are any number of countries that are more pleasant to be in than the UK, including just about all of Europe, but it is a tragedy that we have to go elsewhere to achieve the quiet civilisation that arguably was born in the UK.

Even the Spectator is not immune from popularisation and vulgarisation. What on earth is the Editor doing interviewing Lily Allen?

A certain person vulgarised the excellent Sunday Times after Harry Evans left. He seems to be bent on doing so at the Spectator, and lopping off another remaining piece of the old civilised Britain.

Mark Solomon

One of the few articles written by Rod recently I agree with. All these traits were painfully obvious 10 years ago when I left Britain to live in Spain, because it was no longer my country and almost everything in its public discourse was foreign to me. It has got infinitely worse since. The Tory governments of the 80s and 90s surrendered vast tracts of policy to the Left without a fight (in the sectors you mentioned) thinking they were unimportant compared to defence, foreign affairs and the economy, only to find that it is these sectors that are more important as they shape society on a basic level and rollback is virtually impossible to achieve. A good place to start would be the replacement of the traditional Common Law system with a clear and limited set of written laws. It is the vagueness of the Common Law that enables lawyers to set the agenda and continually push the boundaries on issues that have never been legislated on anywhere (eg which law stated that there could be no physical contact with children?) - if the only way to change the law were in parliament, as it is in continental Europe, then at least the 'people's representatives' can be held responsible if nonsense results. I found it telling that all your examples were from the English-speaking world - this sort of stuff does not happen here!

Anon

There's none so blind, David V. as a Commie who will not see; (especially one who sticks a nose in supposedly rarefied air and sez "Do you mean communist or socialist?").

If the destruction of Christmas for you boils down to polarization of capitalism and communism, then I'd say, you wouldn't see anything beautiful where I see it anyway. We're not even from the same planet; which is probably why I can't breathe on yours.

In pagan terms, however, your socialist ideologists are my Grendels and dragons. And if you think they've done no damage, then you either didn't know Britain before they set about it, or you don't know it now.

David Short

A MacAulay, I did write a reply but it was censored...something to do with me commenting on the moral turpitude of a person in power at the publication.

i didn't name names but obviously the cap fitted!

In the past, the powers that be at the Spectator would have approved of my disapproval....

Peter Gompertz

Read it and weep.

Colnial

Great article and something I have been trying to work out for decades.

Is it not all about reactions and self hate?

Britain once had an empire and a was ruled by a class that was tough and elitist. Two world wars, an exhausted Britain retreats, drops its empire. And the abuse starts. From an America so naive that it thought everyone was good and wanted only to be like Chuck and Mary - Sue from Ohio, from the backward countries once ruled and, principally, from those of the weaker masses who were incapable of pulling themselves upwards.

This group simmered away, infiltrating the media and sniping at the departing order, until they became the toxic brew that now makes up the dreadful urban left. It fears and loathes its betters and, being from the weakest sector, seeks to legislates against the multitude of things it is frightened of.

Rhodesia was a great example. Britain's left wing core was prepared to put its boot on Rhodesia's throat until they had squeezed it to death and put Mugabe in power. If a referendum had been held at the time such actions would not have been supported. And what are they doing now about their genocidal lunatic and the millions of lives they wrecked?

Colonial

Great article and something I have been trying to work out for decades.

Is it not all about reactions and self hate?

Britain once had an empire and a was ruled by a class that was tough and elitist. Two world wars, an exhausted Britain retreats, drops its empire. And the abuse starts. From an America so naive that it thought everyone was good and wanted only to be like Chuck and Mary - Sue from Ohio, from the backward countries once ruled and, principally, from those of the weaker masses and who were incapable of pulling themselves upwards.

This group simmered away, infiltrating the media and sniping at the departing order, until they became the toxic brew that now makes up the dreadful urban left. It fears and loathes its betters and, being from the weakest sector, seeks to legislates against the multitude of things it is frightened of.

Rhodesia was a great example. Britain's left wing core was prepared to put its boot on Rhodesia's throat until they had squeezed it to death and put Mugabe in power. If a referendum had been held at the time such actions would not have been supported. And what are they doing now about their genocidal lunatic they and the millions of lives they wrecked?

Anon

Well, Mr. Turner -

I guess you went to some school somewhere. So why would you fail to remember that when Constantine made Christianity the official religion he also put a stop to the Persecution of the Christians? His predecessor, Diocletian, liked that sort of thing (if you can't take a trip to Lichfield, you can check out the Cathedral website for a sample of its probable effect in Britain). Admittedly, the Lichfield story may be just legend... but, I would point out that the same word still lives in 'lychgate'; and in any case, the story would be consistent with other gratuitous slaughterings - before Christianity was powerful. Before it had enough support to address the issue of human bestiality. Judaeo-Christianity has survived so long because it says and does some very special things, I believe - not because thousands of years worth of us have been so stupid we didn't appreciate a pagan when we saw one.

Neither am I so blind or ignorant as to suggest that Judaeo-Christianity has succeeded in all cases and every way - but it has given hope, and even some leverage, to the better half of our benighted species.

So as you turn to the souls who thrive in the winter vales; and as you learn what they really are like...Perhaps one day an image may come to you of a baby loved and nurtured by his humble and gentle parents; of warm lights; and softly lowing animals; and music; and the mercy of the one true God - .

And when those winter-loving souls are perpetrating their human sacrifices - and the blood is gushing over the altars yet again, and the heads are rolling in the gutters; maybe, one day, you'll hope that someone will explain to you what Christianity really is about..

I hope there's a Christian still around to help you.

A. MacAulay

Actually, David Short, I am describing Kenya about 10 years ago. I describe mostly things I saw, or read, in what was then at least, a pretty good Press.

Also to comment on Mark Soloman, who is quite correct in that other countries, such as Germany, just don't get their knickers in a PC twist about Christmas or Santa Claus. Niklaus is part of German culture, and whilst Germans are often insecure about their culture for well known historical reasons, neither the figure nor the feast have been commercialised in the mindlessly kitsch, brutally manipulative, Anglo-Saxon trans-Atlantic way.

Lastly, all religions are syncretistic and borrow eclectically from earlier revelations anything that doesn't directly contradict their message. This is possible because symbols have an entity beyond individual experience, which is another way of saying that, yes Santa really exists but not when the individual has been reduced to being an existentialist, barbaric rootless social unit.

We all bemoan this loss of culture, but as any phiosopher worth reading has ever said, that this culture will be lost when we cease to cultivate it in ourselves.

So I suggest for all a New Year Resolution; that we vow to put an end to pussy cultural relativsm!

Wilhelm

It is no accident that the Labour Party of 1964 should share this craving for autarchy, for economic self-sufficiency, with the pre-war Fascist régimes and the present-day Communist states. They are all at heart totalitarian.

In the end, the Labour party could cease to
represent labour. Stranger historic ironies have happened than that.

Enoch Powell 1964

The lefty liberal BBC and press did a hatchet job on him. He was ahead of his time and was proved correct on Europe, mass uncontrolled immigration, Brixton, Toxteth riots and the bombings of the Londonistan underground.

Nick Ray

Dear Mr Liddle

You (quite rightly) express disapproval of the modern sentiment that "Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus". This admirably pro-Christian sentiment is slightly undermind by your endorsement of Dr Dawkins' book "The God Delusion" where you dismiss Christianity as "this superstitious nonsense that has bedevilled us since our first visit to Sunday school". May I assume you are being completely sincere on both occasions?
Yours sincerely
NR

Peter Charnley.

The madness and fanaticism of the far Left is every bit as inhuman and divisive as that of the far Right. But, for the moment, it is the theme song of our time. However, looking at the chaotic and extensive influences of Political Correctness, way beyond those of Santa's Grotto, it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that future generations will review this sad and pitiful page from the handbook of human history with the same degree of astonishment as people now look back upon the imagery of book burning orgies in the streets of 1930's Germany. Extremism, when powerful, initially blinds people (most people, not all). But it eventually reveals itself (to most people, not all) and always defeats itself. And I emphasise - always. And, more often than not, it paves the way for it's own dramatic antithesis.

For the time being the words of C.S. Lewis, written over fifty years ago but applicable to every age, might provide a degree of realistic and comforting perspective.
"All periods have their own characteristic illusions. They are likliest to lurk in those widespread assumptions which are so ingrained in the age that no one dares to attack or feels it necessary to defend them". Suprised by Joy - 1955.

rod liddle

Nick - I'm a Christian so I certainly wouldn't have dismissed Christianity in the manner you describe. And I attacked Dawkins' book. Maybe it was Creationism?

Wilhelm

If Ron Piddle is a Christian then Im the Queen of Sheba.

Ive marked his report card and it aint pretty, he's worked for the BBC, the Guardian and Independent, In other words he's a commie.

nick ray

to Rod Liddle (in response)

I'm amazed at your prompt response to my post. "I couldn't possibly dismiss Christianity in the manner that you describe". But I have the paperback edition of Dr Dawkins' book in front of me and your admiring quote in support of his intemperate diatribe (I have quoted your words exactly) must be a hallucination. I will reproduce the quote in full as it appears: "...entertaining, wildly informative, splendidly written...we are elegantly cajoled, cleverly harangued into shedding ourselves of this supertstitious nonsense that has bedevilled us since our first visit to Sunday School" (Rod Liddle, Sunday Times).

PS Your column is one of the best features of the Spectator. Please keep them coming!

Best wishes Nick Ray

richard payn

'This is where we are now' is the worrying refrain in Rod Little's 'Come with me to Santa's Grotto ...'

'And remember,' Rod Little concludes, 'it's got absolutely nothing to do with Jesus.'

Thank God, I say!

John Herbert

The same bunch of bloody idiots that have bought us the joy that is Zimbabwe. The best intentions lead to hell and everyone trying to legislate niceness will lead to one thing, war.

rod liddle

Hi Nick - thanks for that. I think it is well written and splendidly polemical. But the superstitious nonsense I refer to is creationism, not Christianity. The blurb is disingenuous.

MJUG

A food for thought article!
The description of Santa as experienced by Rod Liddle's daughter has brought me back to what the reason of Human Life is about, and certainly, where we are not now and we should be: to place God instead of that caring and lovely Santa. Here He is, ready to reach out and grab hold of me when I stumble, trying to climb that sleight that life is about:not to do what I know that is correct (nothing to do with "political correctness) and to do what I know that it is wrong.
And I experience His instinctive reaction of coming forward, with open arms, facilitating my coming back to Him.
I ask myself: If Christmas is not about Jesus-Christ, why do we call it Christ-mas?
At least in all the wonderful to live, politically correct democracies (and there are many more than the UK) should go back, with all its consequences, of calling this season "Winter Solstice and Festival of Lights".
To All: Have a Peaceful, 'politically incorrect' Christmas.
MJUG

Mrs Hazel Schwartz

Ur absolutely right, poor Santa, scared doing the right thing in catching the child.
Firstly I'd say,vet all Santa's, hopefully that is done everywhere, and then tell whichever arsehole politically correct male or female to go and play with the traffic. It's the fact that these politically correct morons are listened to and acted upon that make it worse. Same goes for the **** who stopped the salvation army having Christmas cards in their windows because it might offend the muslims, what utter bloody nonsense, if they were offended, which they're NOT, they wouldn't choose to go to uk.
I'm so glad we've come to inclusive Toronto.

Jan

Nit-picking, I know, but this article - which I heartily endorse - refers to "Santa" throughout. In my youth, Santa was the American Father Christmas. He wears a suit and soft cap. Father Christmas wears a cloak with a hood. Can we have the British one back please?

Wilhelm

Ron Piddle caught telling fibs, oh dear, what a phoney and hypocrite.

Ron, do you get paid for writing piffle ?
And can you tell the truth, son. thanks.

A. MacAulay

The council of the Black Forest village of Fluorn-Winzeln has now banned Santa Claus from shops and public places, including schools for the interesting reason that their own, traditional St. Niklaus better reflects the spirit of Christian giving than Santa on his sleigh.

A conservative rural community has reflected on and acted on a matter of spiritual health and religious awareness for its citizens.

How breathtakingly radical! Might it not be a model for us? The modern puritanism makes our children into thoughtless consumers with its undeniable bias toward receiving, rather than giving.

paul gilboy

alas its the way of the world perfectly reasonable legislation gets distorted and misused.
when we regulate peoples behaviour and ascibe meaning to it it becomes distorted. The human rights act is a case in point.
English law defined what was right and wrong if you passed a line it was criminal but recent legislation does away with this absolute and makes all actions relative. If you offend some one its a crime its wicked and pernicious.

Colonial

Re Peter Charley's post, you raise a very interesting point. A law of physics is that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You see it throughout nature and society. Most visibly in the likes of social norms, art and design.

What is really interesting is to try and work out what sort of world we will live in, in say 2050. To me, with the demise of the West, gutted so successfully by the left, gross overpopulation, peak oil, Muslim fundamentalism, global warming and the rise of Asia, what we seem to be headed towards "ain't pretty". In a way, the end of a renaissance period.

Andrea

When I was an American gradeschooler back in the Pleistoscene Era (mid 1950s) there was a male 6th grade teacher who was known to be a little free with his hands on the boys in the class. We all, boys and girls, made horrible fun of the poor man, who also was spotted driving around our town on a bicycle. His "secret" life was not safe with us. My point is that kids should learn about the real world, within reason, travelling in packs with their friends, under a kind of general parental observation. This way the mistakes they make form an important part of their life experience, and they get a chance to develop the all-important "common sense" that they will need for the rest of their lives. I have always loved Maggie Smith decrying the Safety First mentality in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie."

Derek Holmes

Perhaps we need another world war to allow us to realign our priorities. I lived through the horrors of the last kerfuffle and it certainly opened my eyes to what is and isn't important plus just how much risk is an integral part of living and developing.

Derek Holmes

I see some idiot with insufficient productive work to occupy their time has brought out a book warning about the dangers presented by Christmas. Crackers are a real no-no. Crackers? Exactly.

laurie macdonell-sanchez

Mr. Liddle, you never fail to get us all going in one way or another (I laughed myself silly @ your lead-in), revealing once again the very broad--in numbers & viewpoint--Spectator readership. I enjoyed the commentary almost as much as the article. The humorous bathos of your perspicacious rant from the heart give us the darkling ray of hope that if enough of us stave off fear & the perception of invalidation, then sanity, common sense & decency can be re-established.

sd goh

Can't the Brits, at any rate the cynical PC brigade, see that their efforts to 'please' the different cultures there can be construed as mere condescension and posturing.It's an irony of sorts that foreigners can come to the Far East and partake of this universal festival(regardless whether it has to do with the birth of Christ or not) without a tinge of self-consciousness, and where the custom of even hugging small children has no connotations of obscenity or paedophilia!

Glen

Mr Liddle; What a completely nonsensical and uneducated comment to make, (I shall quote you from above; "...But the superstitious nonsense I refer to is creationism, not Christianity.")

Perhaps you should actually find out what Christianity historically claims before making such foolish comments?

Genesis, the first book in the Bible, in which every major Christian doctrine is first derived from, deals with the whole reason that we celebrate Christmas - (Christ's Mass) in the first place. Without Creation and the subsequent Fall (due to Adam's sin) there is no need for Jesus and therefore no need to celebrate Christmas.

So why are you complaining, when people follow a viewpoint that you apparently endorse?

Myra/aus

Mr. Liddle, I mostly agreed with your very relevant article, but I agree with Glen even more.

Jemma polydore

Your articles lift my spirits. Good to know there'ssomeonefighting for sanity.