 |
| Winterval-hater: The Daily Mail’s Melanie Philips |
Rats! My pen was sharpened and my green ink bottle uncorked in readiness to write to the papers scorning a story under the headline Christmas cancelled in politically correct frenzy. But alas and alack no such story came to my attention.
There was no shortage last year, but I just didn’t get my letter drafted in time. I would have relied on Oliver Burkeman’s 2006 piece in The Guardian on this theme. This is where he exposed the falsehood that in a bid to appease Muslims the English city of Birmingham had renamed Christmas Winterval.
And I was all eager to quote The Daily Mail's delicious Winterval retraction. This came in the wake of yet another they’ve-cancelled-Christmas lament from columnist Melanie Philips.
The retraction appeared on 8th November: "Winterval was the collective name for a season of public events, both religious and secular, which took place in Birmingham in 1997 and 1998. We are happy to make clear that Winterval did not rename or replace Christmas."
There was no shortage last year, but I just didn’t get my letter drafted in time. I would have relied on Oliver Burkeman’s 2006 piece in The Guardian on this theme. This is where he exposed the falsehood that in a bid to appease Muslims the English city of Birmingham had renamed Christmas Winterval.
And I was all eager to quote The Daily Mail's delicious Winterval retraction. This came in the wake of yet another they’ve-cancelled-Christmas lament from columnist Melanie Philips.
The retraction appeared on 8th November: "Winterval was the collective name for a season of public events, both religious and secular, which took place in Birmingham in 1997 and 1998. We are happy to make clear that Winterval did not rename or replace Christmas."
Link to article in New Humanist magazine
