Till julens försvar

Liz Hunt i The Telegraph tar en titt på gångna tiders julbasarer och julmarknaderna som man fortfarande kan hitta i städer som Krakow, Strasbourg och Salzburg och talar för en frimodigare brittisk inställning till julen. Det är inte utan att man som svensk nickar igenkännande och instämmande:

The galling reality is that the practitioners of other faiths don’t care how we celebrate. They accept the Christmas story as just that, an entertaining story. They consider the bank holidays that mark it to be a bonus, and think we’re mad to neuter our celebrations in the way we do. But we remain consumed by fear of causing offence, and the unthinking, politically correct, ”Christianophobic” jobsworths who run our institutions are to blame.

And so we have the ludicrous situation reported this week whereby travellers to Bahrain – an Islamic country – find the airport fulsomely decorated for Christmas, with Santas in abundance, while O Come All Ye Faithful blasts from the duty-free electronics store. At Heathrow, there are minimal decorations and no carols in case Muslim passengers or airport employees are offended.