Prancing

‘You’ll find my wish list on my website — I have prioritised the presents — can you acknowledge to timmy@...’
‘If his winter fuel charges have gone up, I’m changing our energy supplier.’
‘We shall now sing O Come All Ye Faithful, stressing the word “all” in a sarcastic manner.’
‘Oh, you poor things! Quick, come into the cold…’
‘A stomach pump! Just what I wanted!’
‘What do you want to watch? Fatal Attraction or Misery?’
‘Plenty of bubble-wrap, elves. People love to pop it…’
‘Brussels?’
‘As you have no close family who’ll be visiting this Christmas, we’ve come to offer you a huge, acrimonious argument if you’d like one.’
‘You have the body of a teenager — your liver’s shot, and you have a couple of sexually transmitted infections.’
‘It’s a repeat of what we watched last Christmas.’
‘Show it an increased fuel bill and it drops all the green stuff.’
‘Oh no! It’s a twurkey.’
A net gain Sir: Jamie Bartlett tries to balance plus and minus, and ends with zero (‘Little Brothers are watching you’, 7 December). But I wonder: why lead with the negative? Yes, data can be misused, marketers and government can misbehave (no — they will). But what are we to do? Block progress? Why don’t