Has he been down Oxford Street lately?Īnd then there's the Mail getting all deep and crisp and even about supermarkets not selling enough Christmas cards with religious imagery on. Pickles commented that 'Shoppers want to see Christmas lights, Christmas trees, carol services and nativity scenes, and councils should not hesitate in supporting them'. Except they didn't, they still used angels in their publicity materals and promoted carol concerts, among other things. In 1998, Birmingham Council allegedly called their celebrations Winterval and banned all Christian elements from them. It is traditional to tell stories about the dead coming back at Christmas, after all.

Meanwhile, Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles is ding donging merrily about a 12 year old story. No empirical evidence to substantiate this claim was supplied. He said that 'most people of other religions and cultures both love the story and respect the message'. Some schools aren't doing nativity plays this year, which is a sign as clear as the Star of Bethlehem that we're all going to hell in a handcart, apparently. It's not like anyone is standing outside churches stopping people going in but yet again, we are cast as Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham telling his minion to 'call off Christmas'.Īrchbishop Rowan Williams isn't resting very merry, being seriously dismayed about school nativity plays and public carol singing being banned. Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat and, inevitably, the sound of voices struggling to reach the high notes in Hark the Herald Angels Sing is joined by the voices accusing atheists, secularists and anyone else they can drag in of killing Christmas.

National tessera table