(Political-)Seasonal stuff.

Wow! Theresa May pulled put all the stops and talked to loads of Tories and persuaded them to vote in her favour in the no-confidence ballot. I didn’t think she was going to manage it. Or maybe I just hoped she wasn’t going to manage it. And now nobody, well, nobody in her party, can challenge her for another year.

Jacob Rees Mogg must be spitting feathers, maybe regretting pulling the 48 letters trick a little too soon. He has been heard to say that the 34% who voted against the PM should be listened to and therefore she should resign. Funny that! He never seemed to think that the 48% against leaving the EU should be listened to!

And here we are, back where we were before the no-confidence issue, still wondering what will happen with the vote on Theresa’s Deal and having no idea what they future will hold for us. 

Meanwhile the EU has just made a trade agreement with Japan. Wasn’t that one of the trade agreements the newly free-from-the-EU Britain was hoping to be able to make? Have we missed the boat?

Ah, well, I am not going to be able to sort all that out. And it’s actually a fine, if rather chilly, day so I shall simply put politics put of my mind for now.

Here’s a Christmas story from St Ives. Not the one in Cornwall but a different one in Cambridgeshire. How many St Ives are there anyway?!

In this Cambridgeshire St Ives a “family-friendly rave” (whatever one of those is - presumably some mind of disco for mums and tots) was going on recently in the Corn Exchange building. Coincidentally, but quite separately, an organisation called Festival Event St Ives had arranged for Santa and his chief snowman to be available to visit on the floor above the disco. Why Santa had a snowman with him remains a mystery. I always thought his helpers were little elves not snowmen, even though working for Santa at the North Pole might be a perfect job opportunity for snowmen, a logical career choice.

All was well until something triggered the smoke alarm at the disco and the building had to be evacuated. Santa, possibly annoyed and head-achey from trying to have nice conversations with small children above the noise of the rave going on below, threw a hissy fit. He apparently tore off his hat and beard and stormed out, swearing at children getting in his way and telling everyone to “get the f*** out”.

That must have been a rude awakening for children who still believed in Santa Claus. One mother interviewed told Cambridgeshire Live that she had to tell her children he wasn’t the “real Santa. He was an imposter and will be going on the naughty list”. Always a good explanation in such a situation.

Our children never liked visiting false Santas. They always found them a little frightening and much preferred reading about Santa and his adventures in the picture story books by Raymond Briggs. The one about Santa going on his summer holidays was a facourite.

Incidentally, in Waterstone’s bookshop the other day I saw two versions of Raymond Briggs’s book “The Snowman”. One was labelled “the book of the film” and the other “the original story book”. I was in rather a hurry and did not have time to examine them to see if there were differences in the content. Or in the price for that matter. Maybe it’s a marketing ploy!

More Christmas stories tomorrow perhaps.