It’s a ‘will we, won’t we get to Christmas Day unscathed’ sort of time just now. Come to that, will Christmas be cancelled anyway? And if it is, by Order of Boris, will people feel inclined to obey his command? What a delicious irony it would be if the only ones totally obliged to do so would be him and his ministers while the rest of us follow the example of him and his ministers and cheerfully disregard the rules.
Anyway, for those of my Loyal Readers who aren’t on our incredibly privileged mailing list, here’s our Christmas card for you:
You’ll notice the title is an enigmatic if hopeful ‘Towards a brighter 2022’. It was printed a couple of weeks ago when things looked fairly cheerful but it proves the point about a week being a long time in politics because now I’d have added a question mark. Which just goes to show the importance of punctuation. On the subject of apostrophes - which I know is dear to the hearts of all of you - here’s proof of why we must continue to use them correctly:
My Loyal Reader’s wife’s car (one Loyal Reader, one wife)
My Loyal Reader’s wives’ cars (one Loyal Reader, more than one wife)
My Loyal Readers’ wife’s car (more than one Loyal Reader, one wife)
My Loyal Readers’ wives’ cars (more than one Loyal Reader, their wives)
Even with apostrophes the complications are confusing, without them we’d never know whether we’re coming or going. On that note I’ll wish my Loyal Reader and his wives a very merry Christmas and the happiest of New Year’s.