…you know when it’s the run-up to the Christmas season – the first ‘Winterval’ story of the year has appeared.

As we all know, the story’s claim about

“The increasing external pressures to secularise Christmas and even the attempts to rebrand it as ‘Winterval’”

is, of course, a plate of steaming prairie oysters:

“The council had drawn particular attention to the city’s Anglican cathedral during the festival by placing Christmas lights in the trees around the building, and the greeting “Happy Christmas Birmingham” hung in large lights over the main entrance to the Council House as it had done every other year”.

Tip to Andy Mabbett for the spot