I have always enjoyed Christmas, as a kid it was about the gifts like all the other kids but as I got older it was about family and having a break. I always looked forward to it and loved the build up, buying the gifts, but this year I’m not really looking forward to Christmas all that much at all.
The main reason is that the U.K. is so broken I challenge anyone with a heart to feel optimistic this winter, we see how broken it is on the news, we see how broken it is all around us, and I see it at work every day.
We see homeless people, especially bad in England right now that thugs destroy a homeless couples tent and the ambulance service provide a new one. It used to be we would provide a roof over their heads, now we provide a tent.
We see that services starved of cash are going or the sick headline in the Mail,
Relying on volunteers to care for our sick and food banks to care for our hungry. We hear about people in work using those foodbanks or worse still
There is a cruelty in the U.K. now that while it has maybe always been there is so in your face now it makes me even more ashamed of the U.K. than I was before. Tris in his tweet is spot on. On Christmas Day the news will have May going to Church, as well as, the Windsor procession to a Church in Scotland while the devotees look on. The topic will be whom is wearing what and how amazing the Queen is.
It’s sick.
There is a part of me that just wants it all over and done with this year. I’m looking forward to the two weeks off work to recharge the batteries before I go back to work and try to support young people who are struggling. I even feel a little guilty this year, ask myself if I could have done more for my family, for others.
We live in a country where some people have more than they will ever need and want more while the majority don’t have enough and often give away what little they have to the person who has nothing.
This country is so broken now it is actually frightening, the people so broken that change can’t come when there is no fight to demand it left. And it will get worse as long as we have the Tories in power, as well as, in opposition to themselves. The other parties are devoid of ideas, are useless or playing it safe when what we need is a revolution of ideas and of a little bravery.
So as I get closer to the holidays I don’t feel festive or hopeful, I feel tired and fearful, I don’t feel optimistic, I feel ashamed. This year I feel that Christmas is something to be endured, and for many out there to be survived.
I don’t have any answers and this post is a vent but we have to do something and we have to do it soon.
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
Is the ghost of Charles Dickens looking out over a society that is gradually becoming more recognisable.
John
It is starting to feel like a Dickens novel in the U.K. these days and I don’t see an end anytime soon. I just can’t motivate myself this Christmas at all, it just doesn’t feel the same.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Bruce,
I understand your frustration. However Christmas does give us a chance to pause and reflect. Your family time should be sacred and precious. Enjoy the pause and resume the fight when the festive season has passed. There will be plenty of us standing beside you.
As a personal note thank you for expressing so eloquently what I feel. I wish you and yours a happy Christmas.
Sinclair
smac1314
I’ll certainly do my best and no doubt will enjoy having my Mum and brothers over and seeing everyone open the gifts I got them. But it will also be a of fake smile for the rest of the time I suspect, I’ll try and re charge the batteries, I hope to spend some time reading and hopefully relaxing. Thanks for your kind words, I know it’s not just me who is feeling what this country is becoming but we do need to fight, my way is to blog and hassle politicians. Hopefully we will see a ramping up of the Indy movement next year.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
The item that I really get upset at is the advert on TV for Erskine hospital.
Leave us some money from your estate for the service men and women that have be damaged in the service of the UK.
They’ve been used and now cast aside to live on Charity when the exchequer should be totally responsible for their welbeing.
Yet the servicemen Ive spoken to don’t see it as a concern, they’ve been indocrinated by the service with buddyism.
Enjoy your family, the most important part of our lives.
Dave
I can’t stand the approach of using guilt from charities now, or the door stopping. These adverts make me not want to give and inevitably I don’t and I totally agree, service men and women should be looked after by the state but in this country they are just cannon fodder and always have been by every government in power.
Have a good holidays.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce