OK no not really. But we did get a card from Dan Boyle through the door this morning, one that wishes us a happy holiday season.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I appreciate this, especially in a country that is 95% Christian. (The 88.4% Roman Catholic bit isn’t really relevant to my joy.) Getting “Merry Christmas” cards irritates me because they make annoying assumptions about the recipients and reinforce a mistaken notion of what’s normal (and normative) in this day and age.

Oh, and drive carefully on that suburban estate of yours this Christmas, okay?

As my mother says, language counts.