Christmas reminds us of our common humanity

At Christmas, we should remember with gratitude the care and dedication of those who have to keep the services going on which we all depend during the holiday period. To our hospitals, Ambulance Service and nursing homes, to the Royal Mail, the Air and Sea Rescue Service and those who keep the lights on and the heat supplied to our homes, and to the brave men and women of the armed forces who will spend another Christmas in the arid provinces of Afghanistan, risking life and limb, we owe a great debt. This is a time when most of us try to get home to spend these few days with our families and when the ordeal of separation and loneliness can be even harder to bear. Thus it is now that what Wordsworth called “those little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and of love” can mean so much more to their recipients. I have heard this season already of families who have invited a widowed neighbour or acquaintance to lunch on Christmas day so that they will not be alone, of local people giving up their time to arrange a Christmas lunch for those in their community who have no family, and of staff at the passport office working unpaid overtime so that a young man whose passport was caught up in its labyrinthine bureaucracy could receive it in time to catch the last flight home before Christmas. These special times in the calendar bring out and enable us to celebrate our common humanity. Particularly at Christmas, we are collectively reminded of the things that bind us and of the service and support we are given by others all the year round. And since it is an occasion for thank yous, I should like to say a heartfelt thank you to my extraordinarily loyal and dedicated staff who work so hard in Bideford and Westminster and wish them and you all a very merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.