Merry Christmas
By Richard North - December 25, 2025
Amazingly, this is the sixth year I’ve celebrated Christmas on Turbulent Times – it seems like only yesterday we set this blog up to replace EUReferendum. Time doth fly.
In keeping with what is emerging as a tradition of posting as slightly off-beat Christmassy pictures, this year I have posted one of a US charitable organisation donating metal trinkets to unknown recipients via their high-speed delivery system.
The method of delivery precludes gift-wrapping but, nevertheless, this “last-mile” technique is being closely watched by Amazon as, it is understood, returns (and indeed complaints of non-delivery) from grateful recipients are very low indeed.
In a way, though, that is about as Christmassy it gets, in a year when wishing the wrong person a “Merry Christmas” could be considered a hate crime, singing Christmas carols on the street might get you arrested and commercial enterprises are rushing to re-brand these important Christian celebrations as mere “festivities”, with no hint of their religious origins.
For this and many other reasons, it is hard to get into the festive mood, even though we are surrounded by the ritual elements and are looking forward to traditional Christmas fare today. There is a sombre feeling that there are powerful forces out there, seeking to erase folk memories and strip this holiday of its meaning.
This may reflect last year’s sentiment and the year before that, when the global situation was far from cheery and defied any attempt to cast this as a season of peace and goodwill.
During this year, though – despite the global situation barely changing – even though there is a cease-fire of sorts in Gaza – there has been a tendency to look closer to home for our gloom and misery as we see a government acting as if it hates its own people, while presiding over an immigration crisis which poses an existential threat to the survival of the English nation.
At the same time we are being gaslit by a Home Office. presided over by The Muslim Lady, which asserts that we as a nation are defined by “our tolerance, openness and generosity” – a perverse and ahistorical view of our peoples.
It then waits until the day before Christmas, when parliament is not in session and most people’s attention is elsewhere, to announce that “for refugees who wish to stay here, and are willing and able to contribute to society, we will create a new work and study visa route to earn permanent settlement in the UK”.
This government, therefore, is continuing to implement its open border policy, treating the United Kingdom as an economic grazing strip, opening the floodgates even wider to alien migrants, in defiance of the express wishes of most of the native population.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, this is the year when the word “remigration” has emerged from the shadows to enter the mainstream vocabulary, while David Betz’s thesis of a coming civil war is no longer seen as a remote possibility.
Today, though, is the one day of the year when we are supposed to leave all those thoughts behind us, but it is easy to see why that might be difficult, as they weigh heavily on the consciousness.
Difficult though it might be, that nevertheless is what we must do. So, with a glass of wine in one hand I raise a toast to my friends and readers, and thank mightily my loyal donors in these financially constrained times who help keep this blog going.
And to all those who have the patience to read this blog, perhaps my overall message is that we should indeed enjoy this day for what it is. As the clouds of uncertainty and discord draw in, there may not be many more like it.
Merry Christmas.
