Archbishop Justin Welby has it just right for Christmas
JUSTIN WELBY is turning out to be the best thing that's happened to the Church of England for years.
Rather than agonising about "climate change" like his predecessor, the Archbishop of Canterbury is tackling the real subjects that affect real people and the latest is the unbearable stress that Christmas causes so many families.
His specific gripe is about the amount of money people spend on festivities, with debt leading to family breakdown, but he is absolutely right about the fact this is a time of year that many have come to dread.
Cooped up, force fed and with no means of release, given that the country virtually comes to a stop for the best part of two weeks, is it any wonder that rows, upset and divorce all soar?
Christmas has not only become a celebration of consumerism rather than the Saviour's birth, it has become a hotchpotch of expectation that the reality cannot match.
Families are expected to reunite and be loving, even if various members are not on speaking terms.
A feast is laid on worthy of a medieval king, despite the fact that we're all flat broke. And there is the constant tension about who goes where.
The host complains because they're expected to do everything and the guest complains because they'd rather be at home. No one goes for that mythical postprandial walk.
Instead they sit about getting drunk while watching telly, which invariably ends in a terrible fight.
The one person in the country who can try to do something about this, however, without coming over as Scrooge, is the Archbishop, who has described it as "secular over-the-topness" and he's absolutely right.
Previous generations and other parts of the world, including rich ones, would look on in shock if they saw the waste and self-indulgence that Christmas has degenerated into.
In the US they keep it to one day and don't even have Boxing Day off. It's unlikely, to put it mildly, that any politician would be brave enough to suggest something similar but the Archbishop can.
Carry on like this and he might even start luring people back to the church.