Every year that venerable institution, They, likes to make the complaint that ‘Christmas gets earlier every year’, and how wrong it is that you can buy your crackers in October from the supermarket.

I was drawn to this news item by John Humphries foaming at the mouth on the Today programme at how terrible it is that Harrods has opened its Christmas shelf in the middle of August, 138 days before Christmas. Boy, was he foaming.

The thing is, whereas I might vaguely acknowledge They have grounds to moan on the general point (although I do wonder why They seem to let it spoil their day so), I think the complaint against Harrods was just plain stupid.

Let’s examine the points, shall we?

• Harrods is, basically, a tourist shop, selling tat to tourists,
• The height of the tourist season in London is August,
• Tourists by and large like to buy presents for the folks back home,
• People generally like to buy Christmas presents for people,

So is it any surprise that Harrods launches its Christmas range in August?