Behold, my Christmas faggot:

Guido Fawkes

Electoral Commission Says Labour's Election Delays Damage Confidence in Democracy

The Electoral Commission has fired a warning shot at Labour after the government after it wrote to 63 councils asking them if they wanted to delay ...

The Electoral Commission has fired a warning shot at Labour after the government after it wrote to 63 councils asking them if they wanted to delay their local elections for another year. 9 million people without a vote… The quango said today: We are disappointed by both the timing and substance of the statement. Scheduled elections should as a rule go ahead as planned, and only be postponed in exceptional circumstances. We are concerned by the possibility of some council elections in May being postponed, and even more by any further postponement to those which already had been deferred from 2025… As a matter of principle, we do not think that capacity constraints are a legitimate reason for delaying long planned elections. Extending existing mandates risks affecting the legitimacy of local decision making and damaging public confidence. There is a clear conflict of interest in asking existing Councils to decide how long it will be before they are answerable to voters. Again – imagine if a right-of-centre government tried to do this…

The Spectator

The absurdity of the £10 Christmas bonus for pensioners

In the time honoured tradition of underwhelming Christmas gifts, surely none is quite so derisory as the government’s Christmas bonus for pension...

In the time honoured tradition of underwhelming Christmas gifts, surely none is quite so derisory as the government’s Christmas bonus for pensioners. Many recipients may not even notice it. A £10 payment by the Department for Work and Pensions, this tax-free bauble is sent to every state pensioner in the first week of December, plus those on carer’s allowance or pension credit. There is no fanfare from ministers, no letter from the DWP, it just quietly appears in the bank accounts of around 18 million people each and every year. Nothing sums up the craven way our politicians deal with pensioners quite like the Christmas bonus First conceived by Ted Heath’s government in 1972, it was originally greater than the state pension itself, and was designed to cover the cost of a family’s Christmas dinner. However, since 1977, its value has remained unchanged at £10 – meaning the only Christmas dinner it’ll buy you these days is an M&S roast turkey ready meal for one. Indeed, given the average Christmas dinner is now estimated to cost about £32, you’d be better off using the DWP’s extra tenner to bribe the local carollers to leave you alone. It isn’t the only absurdity in our £146 billion state pension system. Pensioners also get an extra 25p a week when they turn 80, which equates to around £14 a year. The winter fuel payment has remained capped at £300 since its introduction in 2003. The argument for leaving these anachronisms alone seems largely to be political convenience. Given the backlash to Labour’s attempts to restrict winter fuel payments, one can appreciate any government’s reluctance to be accused of stealing Christmas from the elderly by removing their festive allowance, however paltry. https://archive.ph/hX71B

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