The magic of Christmas has well and truly taken hold thanks to my four-year-old granddaughter. Beyond excited, she’s already thrown several letters to Santa in the fire.
I’ll take her to see Father Christmas soon and, in the coming days, we’ll be feeding reindeers. She’s a very lucky little girl.
Like her, I’ve landed on my feet. This time of year brings invitations to glamorous parties both in London and the Cotswolds, where I live.
Yet, despite the good cheer, the welcoming smell of mulled wine, the sound of laughter and the carols, I’ve been feeling an icy draught this year – and it’s nothing to do with the weather.
It hit me at a London party last week. The hostess, a friend, has always hired professionals to do the food – until now.
‘I can’t afford caterers,’ she told me bluntly, serving up trays of nibbles from a well-known supermarket instead.
‘I can’t survive four more years of Rachel Reeves, I’m done. It will kill me financially.’
She’s not alone. A friend, who made a living sourcing and selling gifts on the internet, has closed her business. No one is buying.
Things have changed in the 18 months since Labour came to power, and I can now see it with my own eyes.
Just a few weeks ago, a friend offered me a dolls pram her granddaughter had outgrown.
This particular friend lives in a grand house and I assumed she was offering the pram for free. I declined, saying: ‘take it to the hospice shop. They would love to sell that.’
I would hate for any child to re-live the Christmases I went through, writes Nadine Dorries. But Rachel Reeves – who, along with Keir Starmer are the ‘Grinches who stole Christmas’ – are making that increasingly likely
Families are struggling to combine work and childcare, to keep the money coming in and to make Christmas a happy one for their children, writes Nadine Dorries
Her reply stunned me: ‘I’m not giving it away,’ she replied. ‘I have to sell. We need the cash.’
Saving money is suddenly all the rage. The car park at my local Aldi in the Cotswolds was full at the weekend. Cars were queuing to get in.
Yet there were plenty of spaces at the nearby Marks & Spencer food hall, a place normally heaving with customers hungry for upmarket Christmas fare.
Our economy is in a stranglehold. And, thanks to a budget which penalised workers and is crippling household budgets, Rachel Reeves is squeezing the life out of Christmas itself.
New figures from financial firm S&P Global suggest British households are the gloomiest they’ve been for the past two years.
Labour’s punitive tax rises have emptied pockets and drained our confidence. Families running low on cash have turned to borrowing.
The jobs market is weakening as the National Insurance hike hits employers – who must also cope with a sharp rise in the minimum wage, not to mention the cost of Angela Rayner’s workers’ rights Bill.
No wonder so many households feel a distinct lack of Christmas cheer.
I can see how families are struggling to combine work and childcare, to keep the money coming in and to make Christmas a happy one for their children – despite a government which wants to penalise them.
Reeves has targeted the very people who work hard and try to do the right thing.
The suffering is real. I know what it’s like to wake up as a child on Christmas morning to find no presents on the end of the bed. To look out of the bedroom window and watch other children on our council estate wheel new bikes and scooters out on to the street.
There is no worry quite like money worry. Nothing keeps you awake at night to quite the same degree. Even as a child, I felt that anxiety, especially around Christmas and I can feel the shadow of it now.
I would hate for any child to re-live the Christmases I went through.
Yet the sad reality is that many will – and that number will grow every year until we get the chance to vote Reeves and Starmer – the Grinches that stole Christmas – out of power.
Classy Kylie is still No 1
At 57, Kylie Minogue looks not a single day older than when, aged 19, she took the music industry by storm
Watching Kylie Minogue on the Strictly Come Dancing results show at the weekend, I thought I’d slipped into a time warp.
She might be 57, but the Aussie star looked not a single day older than when, aged 19, she took the music industry by storm with ‘I Should Be So Lucky’, her first UK hit.
Now, the best part of four decades later, it seems Kylie wants a Christmas No 1. So far at least, her re-release of Office Party is one of the frontrunners.
After a lifetime of hard work and proven success, Kylie deserves to win – and she certainly looks the part.
Charlotte Church has let the world know that she neither shaves her armpits nor uses deodorant, and admits to an interviewer that she’s sometimes a little on the stinky side.
I haven’t used deodorant for 15 years because, in my view, the health risks are well-documented. But would I inflict my body odour on others? Or brag about it?
That’s No and No.
There’s a balance between personal choice and dignity and I hope I found it. But I’m not sure Charlotte has.
PM’s hoping for a miracle
It will be a miracle if Keir Starmer is still this country’s Prime Minister in six months’ time. It’s no longer a case of will Labour MPs oust him, but when.
Not that this is any comfort to the Tories.
I believe May’s local elections will see both Labour and the Conservatives trounced – and I expect Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to go the same way as Starmer.
So buckle up, we have a turbo-charged year of politics ahead.