SANTA SACKS HELPERS… 

More cuts in the National Elves Service.

Peter Grant reporting for the Wirral Globe in Lapland.

Now follows an exclusive interview with Santa. 

Pushing his hands through his white beard, St Nick fought back tears...

“I had to let some elves go. And some pixies have had their lot.

“Gnomes too -  made gnome-less. 

“I don’t even have a redundancy Clause in my own contract"

Back to the Globe newsroom with my sad scoop.

A certain Ghost of Christmas Present came into reception to whistleblow on some politicians he had just consulted about cuts.

I hadn’t seen the likes of him before.  

“I could see a special needs school closed and boarded up,” he said. “They sneered at me: ‘What is so special about it?’ they asked.”

And as he extinguished a fairy light on his robe, he wept.

“I told then I saw broken lollipop sticks - snapped in half by the roadside.

“They said: ‘Are there no traffic lights – zebra crossings?’ ”

Dear reader, this was a dream sequence I had after mulling over some whines about austerity measures.

I had nodded off to sleep after re-reading a copy of A Christmas Carol and found it as relevant today as it was when Charles Dickens wrote it in 1843.

If only he could be around to write the 2014 version.

A Christmas Carve Up.

Politicians - national and local – please, as a present to voters, read it NOW- it’s not too late...

If you don’t, the Ghost of Christmas Cuts yet to come is waiting to haunt you next May.
 

THIS week some of our Westminster MPs and Lords have shown how out of touch they are.

Patronising Baroness Jenkin, commenting after the launch of Frank Field’s powerful report on poverty, said “Poor people don’t know how to cook.”

She apologised, swallowing humble pie (homemade, I trust).

Silly Tory MP Nigel Mills, on a Works and Pension select committee, was caught like a naughty schoolboy playing a computer game...

Grow up Nigel.

And then there’s arrogant speech-making ministerial wag Penny Mordaunt scoring points with her pals for planting innuendoes in her ‘commons as muck’ speech...

There will be no apologies from the voters when certain MPs are rightly ditched at the next election for treating them with contempt.


OUR political leaders have issued their Christmas cards.. 

I am glad we don’t have to put any of them on our mantle piece.

A fun poll revealed….

PM David Cameron’s pic, which was taken in July outside number ten alongside his wife and Chelsea Pensioners, was deemed dull and unimaginative.

The survey said there was not a tree in sight.

One branded it : “An austere looking card.”

It came bottom of the poll.

Ed Mlliband’s homely but boring pic saw the opposition leader and his family doing craft work.

“It looked like a home insurance advert,” said one pollster.

So the winner was the Lib Dems leader and Mrs Clegg in jolly mood..

Nick sported a novelty Santa daft hat as his wife looked on with a wry grin.

It was shot in a photo booth which had enough space to include all his fans.


WATCHING the switch on for the Wirral Globe backed Light up a Life campaign at St John’s Hospice was a moving experience...

(See here for a short video).

It was a celebration of lives - of those who have passed on, those who remain and those who care tirelessly. This was, as John Lennon once sang “Real Love.” 

One of the 10,000 bulbs represented a dear friend of mine who was treated at the wonderful Hospice. I saw it twinkling as his family and friends - along with 400 others - sang carols, hugged and prayed together.

Then I realised every light was sparkling...It is an event I will never forget. I’ll be there next year for the 20th anniversary. 

Shine on.
Peter Grant