You really need to read Kevin Arscott's essay on the Winterval Myth. It's 40+ pages long, and you have to download it as a PDF. It's long, comprehensive, detailed, doesn't contain many jokes, and gets quite angry towards the end. But it's probably the most important thing you'll read this Christmas.
You may come to the end of it saying, like I did: "I didn't realise things had got this bad."
Oh, and it reveals a crucial and neglected piece of data. Birmingham's original Winterval lights were turned on by no less a personage than Barny the Dinosaur.
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ReplyDeleteBarney is not a dinosaur.
ReplyDelete(Trust me on this: I have a Ph.D in palaeontology.)
The Kelvin MacKenzie quote is particularly telling, isn't it? The whole mess is a giant lesson in the dark side of the "power of Story".
ReplyDeleteI liked best the quote about "Muslims say 'Happy Christmas' to Christians and Christians say 'Happy Divali' to Muslims."
ReplyDeleteYes. I think they probably do.