Christmas Post 2022

My (almost) All New Christmas Post for 2022

Some Christmas Heroes (no Villains this Year)

With Covid on the wane I hoped 2022 would be better. Fat chance; it was a third bad’un in a row.

When we lived in the USA in 1983-4 neighbours and colleagues occasionally talked about food banks. I was appalled that in a wealthy country the responsibility of feeding the poorest in society was delegated to volunteers who had the conscience (and the time) to act. We needed nothing like that here! Now every other week or so I drive over to the Newcastle-under-Lyme transporting the donations of the concerned citizens of our village. I make deposits at food banks not withdrawals, but that is a matter of  good luck - there but for fortune……

Hero No 1

Good King Wenceslas (907-935ish) was not actually a king, but the Duke of Bohemia. He became Duke aged 13 under the tutelage of his Christian paternal grandmother. His pagan mother took over after brutally disposing of her mother-in-law. Aged 18 Wenceslas removed his mother and became ruler in his own right. Despite a less than ideal upbringing he was a good man and although history had yet to reach the ‘food bank’ stage, he did (according to the song) go forth and provide vitals and warmth to those in difficult circumstances at a time when the snow was deep and crisp and even. He had the right idea.

St Wenceslas (borrowed from Wikipedia¹)

No good deed goes unpunished, and in 935 (or maybe 929) Wenceslas the Good, was assassinated by his brother Boleslas the Cruel. Having been martyred, he duly became a saint and is buried in St Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

Heroes No 2.

Sarina Wiegman and her Lionesses

Sarina Wiegman²

The Lionesses, England's women’s football team, swept all before to win the 2022 Euros (held over from 2021 because of you know what). Not only did they do it in style, they filled huge stadiums, with enthusiastic crowds entirely lacking in the unpleasant aggressiveness that too often surrounds the men’s game.

A word, too, for Gareth Southgate’s men; they may have gone out of the World Cup in the quarter finals but the game could not have been closer, and the players comported themselves on and off the pitch with a dignity and maturity beyond their years (says this old git). They were and are a credit to the country and their manager.

The England Women's Football team before a game against Czechia in October²

The sportsball side (as my daughter would say) closest to my heart is the Wales Rugby Team: oh dear! If anyone can turn this around then Warren Gatland can.

Hero: No 3

St Nicholas/Santa Claus/Father Christmas. Three cheers for St Nicholas, the original Santa Claus/Father Christmas. Little is known about the historical Saint Nicholas, but he is said to have lived from 270-343, was of Greek descent and became Bishop of Myra (modern Demre, near Antalya on the Turkish holiday coast). His reputation as a secret gift-giver clinched him the Santa Claus gig. He is the patron saint of children, but also of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, prostitutes, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, and students, so all of us at some time or another!

Icon of St Nicholas, Jvari Church, near Mtskheta, Georgia

We found this St Nick in the Jvari Church on a hill above Mtskheta, the 'Canterbury of Georgia' just north of Tbilisi. It has featured in my Christmas Post for several years, partly because I like the concept of a universal, undeclared giver of presents, and partly because its my photo, hence my copyright and I don't have to apologise to anyone for pirating it. I could add, that the whole concept has been tarnished by commercialism and the inevitability of.....  but everybody knows this.

Heroes No 4, includes a very special award for adding to the gaiety of the nations³. My Heroes are....

The British Conservative and Unionist Party

The party that ‘Got Brexit Done’, then realised they hadn’t, then discovered they didn’t know what to do with it anyway and are now trying to blame everyone else for it being a disaster.

They have spent a year driving their clown car round and round in ever decreasing circles and in that time they have had:
three drivers (laughably called Prime Ministers)
four Chancellors of the Exchequer
four Home Secretaries (two of them the same person)
but only Two Foreign Secretaries (such stability!)

Those are the 'Great Offices of State'. Less important ministries have circulated faster than a port bottle in the Officer’s Mess; one Education Secretary was in post for slightly less than 36 hours.

What amazes me is that anyone ever thought that:
Boris Johnson
Liz Truss
Kwasi Kwarteng
Gavin Williamson
Priti Patel
Nadine Dories
Jacob Rees Mogg
Suella Braverman
Matt Hancock
And several more, were ever suitable candidates for high office - and two of them have been prime minister!

At this point I intended to include some photographs, but the only shots available that do not raise copyright issues were their official government mugshots. They have been photoshopped like models on the cover of vogue, not the hint of a skin blemish or a hair out of place (except for Johnson’s artfully tousled locks). I won’t be promoting such vanity, and anyway they all really look like this..

And how they have made the whole world laugh!

Except, of course, those of us who live here, to whom they may appear more like villains than heroes

Which just leaves me just to wish….

A Merry Christmas to All
and
A Happy and Prosperous (good luck with that) New Year

¹Borrowed from Wikipedia: The owner of the copyright (if any) is unknown
²Borrowed from Wikipedia: Photos by James Boyes reproduced under under 'Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic' license
³I am using this term much as Samuel Johnson did in 1779 in his obituary of David Garrick. In those days gaiety had nothing to do with sexual orientation, and according the the OED it still doesn't!.