Thinking Outside The Xmas Box

”TIS the season to be jolly, but as the papers remind us, it is also the season to be socially responsible.

”No job too big or too small”

And that doesn’t just mean limiting your total holiday alcohol consumption to the amount found in a pilot’s pre-flight cocktail.

It means doing your bit – and the papers today are full of it.

The Times reports that the Bishop of Salisbury has threatened to withhold blessings from members of his flock unless they volunteer to do good works in the neighbourhood and make financial contributions to the church.

The paper also reports that the Manchester Dogs’ Home has reversed the traditional motto that a dog is for life and not just for Christmas.

It is encouraging people to take in homeless dogs over Christmas.

Not only will this alleviate the overcrowding at the home, but it may also encourage householders permanently to adopt their temporary companions.

Meanwhile the Independent tells how John Bird, the founder of the Big Issue magazine, has launched a seasonal attack on the ”dependency culture” by suggesting that homeless humans should be forced to work in return for state benefits.

All very interesting, and original too in some ways. But what society really needs is the kind of mind that can think outside the Christmas box.

Fortunately, we at Anorak are blessed in abundance with such imagination.

Might we venture a humble suggestion of our own? If Salisbury’s churchgoers were to take in the homeless – both human and canine – they would then receive the blessing that was until now their right.

Then, with a righteous Christian heart, they could set them to work.

There’s always a paper or a pair of slippers to be fetched and, when they aren’t fetching and carrying, the dogs can work off their excess energy in an ergonomically sound fashion by running on treadmills in order to power domestic generators.

Street persons can bring Christmas cheer by reviving the old tradition of domestic service – in return for state benefits and a feast of seasonal leftovers once they have cooked, served and washed up the household lunch.

Anorak has been operating a pilot scheme for some years, and, although one of the unemployed pilots was sacked for helping himself to the sherry, it was, on balance, a great success.’

Posted: 23rd, December 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink