As the year draws to a close in Wesminster, Guido can’t help but notice a distinct lack of Christmas cheer and jollity on the cobbled streets of SW1. First Labour leader Jebeneezer Corbyn refused to issue a traditional festive Christmas message in a most deplorable display of humbug, instead delaying his salutations till the New Year. How miserly to refuse the merry Corbynites a Christmas message from their leader…

Following this Kerry McCarthy penned a Grinch’s charter on how she is “sick“ of Christmas. Writing on her blog, the Shadow Farming Minister bemoans that Christmas means getting “up close and personal with bits of dead animals”. Guido thinks she should have a word with our festive Prime Minister, who shares no such qualms…

Such mean spiritedness is not limited to the opposition benches though. It appears some newspaper hacks are similarly down in the dumps. Perennial scrooge Zoe Williams has taken to the Guardian to damn Christmas as a mean “prank played on middle aged women”, encouraged by sinister forces like Nigella Lawson. This isn’t the first time Zoe has struggled with Christmas however, having written last year of the Christmas struggle of trying to “formulate an anti-consumerist worldview that doesn’t involve becoming a killjoy”. A challenge those of us with children can all too easily relate too…

Such unhappiness at this time of year concerns Guido, and in the spirit of Christmas cheer there can only be one solution: Hug a scrooge this Christmas. 

Do you see a relative sitting glumly at the end of the table, Christmas hat drooping down over their brow, ruminating on Corbyn’s poll scores? A Green Party member, half-heartedly tugging on a cracker, lamenting the lack of vegan options and absence of Greenham Common activists in their family? A Stalinist wracked with guilt at the orgy of decadent Imperialist consumerism that Christmas occasions? Give them a hug, let them know it’s Christmas Time after all…

Guido wishes goodwill to all men (and women) this Christmas eve.