Bling

That's a fantastic display of bling we've got up now. The reindeer look superb, the penguins are dancing, the icicles are dangling and the illuminated wind chimes are binging out an Amin⁶ chord, leaving the rabbits in the Orchard ever so slightly on edge the whole time as they wait for it to resolve.

There are some that say we've put it all up a little early. But I say yah phooey.

It's cold. It's dark. And we've got one bunch of politicians telling us how harsh the cuts will be because it makes them look hard, and in four years time they can say they got us through it. And the other bunch of politicians telling us how harsh the cuts will be to show us how nice they are, and nasty the other lot are. And if politicians or churchpeople or anybody else says anything about anything, a bunch of joyless jobsworths analyse every word to see who they can find that they can claim might have been offended.

So I say let port-soaked Tories say stupid stuff. That's what they're there for. Let Socialists wear duffel coats and wave the red flag and hate the rich. That's what they're meant to be for. Let's let a thousand tea lights blaze and a million blue LEDs flare into the cloudless frozen skies. Let's bling in the new.

But can we leave that giant illuminated Snowman till tomorrow? If we light it early we're missing the whole point of Advent.