At this festive time of year, the SpeakFreely Editorial board is getting in a merry mood. The team has spent the year busily writing, reading and editing, working to make Speak Freely better than ever. To top off the year, the team have each written a letter to Santa Claus. We wish you all a very merry Christmas and hope that it is freer than it was last year!
Ian Golan – Executive Publisher
Dear Santa,
This Christmas, I won’t be asking for anything for myself. Instead, I’m going to do something truly altruistic and ask for a gift for others.
I’m begging you, old friend: make one small exception this year and just this once keep our political class off the naughty list. Yeah, I know what you’ll say. Those pesky politicians have been extra naughty lately. You’ll mention the ever-higher taxes, the ever-more-bloated budgets, the attempts to mess with our free internet, and that newly rediscovered love for conscription.
And yet, I’m still asking: for one time only, give them a present anyway.
Something harmless that keeps them occupied for a good couple of hours.
A yo-yo, to keep their hands busy when they start to get too idle.
A Tamagotchi they can fuss over for a while before getting back to nannying the rest of us.
Or maybe a remote-controlled train so they can get happily lost for hours and, if we’re lucky, miss a bill or two at the next plenary session.
A LEGO set of the sort that comes with a few missing pieces and the unclearest instructions, so they can work through all their industrial policy zeal in their own bedroom.
A few toy soldiers, too, so they can live out their conscription fantasies on a tabletop.
And a karaoke machine, for those who simply can’t resist stealing the limelight.
Warm regards,
Ian
Ogechukwu Egwuatu – Editor-in-Chief Website
Dear Santa,
It feels a little familiar writing this, because my wish list this year looks a lot like last year’s. Even though lights are twinkling and carols are playing, the world still feels heavy. So I’m asking again for the things that matter most.
At the top of the list is peace. Not the fragile kind that melts away like snow in the sun, but real, lasting peace built on good, fair agreements that truly end wars. Too many people are spending this Christmas in fear, waiting for calm that never seems to come.
It doesn’t help that so many politicians seem to be on a wild sleigh ride of their own, leaving chaos in their wake. Could we have steady hands and cooler heads, especially when the world already feels so tense? Better still, politicians should have way less power than they currently do.
Meanwhile, the culture wars are chiming louder again, drowning out goodwill and turning small differences into big fights. I wish we could turn down the noise, show more grace, and remember our shared humanity.
This Christmas, I’m hoping for a quieter, kinder world filled with peace, understanding, and some goodwill to light the way.
Merry Christmas,
Oge
Sergio Castilla Santos – Social Media Manager
Dear Santa,
This year, I have just one wish: double the presents. I want lots and lots of gifts, not just for me, but for everyone. For all the good girls and boys, hand out twice as many—leave them wide-eyed and speechless.
I know some will say consumerism is the cancer of the planet; others will argue that consumerism isn’t capital-ism, since the latter is built on saving, as the name itself suggests. But listen to me, dear Santa Claus: you were born in the United States, the capital of liberalism… though less so with each passing day. It was the political experiment that inspired the French Revolution… though today it inspires no one anymore. Still, you know perfectly well that we can consume a lot, a whole lot, without falling into “consumerism.” We simply need to save more than we spend, and this is achieved—as you already know—by strengthening a capitalist economy, anchored in the primary links of the commodity chain.
That is why I ask for many, many gifts. Let’s consume like never before!
Merry Christmas and Happy New-capitalismus!
Sergio
Oscar Gill-Lewis – Correspondent Program Manager
Dear Santa,
This year I hope you deliver your presents in a black and yellow suit rather than a red and white one. People may think you represent the Labour party, God forbid. I have would like you to give Keir Starmer a copy of On Liberty by JS Mill. For me on the other hand I would like an omnibus repeal of many laws ruining Britain. I also ask that I only receive gifts from you. My government is currently trying to gift me a digital ID card, while also gifting many people who ‘claim’ to be sick, unwilling or unable to work large amounts of benefits while working people are being taxed into equality: equality of poverty. I also ask you for some nandos vouchers so I can take politicians out for a proper meal and talk some sense into them.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year,
viva la libertad carajo!.
Yours truly,
Oscar
Paritosh Purohit – Editor
Dear Santa,
My chief wish for this year is that you eliminate barriers to knowledge, to the degree that you can.
Battles of principle and interest are waged every day across the globe, and make use of a variety of means- not all of them pleasant!
I for my part have maintained that the surest victory is that over hearts and minds, and that this can only be achieved by treating ideas like infrastructure; giving them constant replenishment and maintenance.
A vital tool in the achievement of a goal like this is information: books, articles, papers, letters, whatever. Many of these that are available are locked away behind doors one is charged a fee to cross.
Ways to access information free of charge are not nonexistent– but there could be more of them. My request to you is that you give as many persons as you can a pathway to learning that costs them nothing but their own effort and time.
Best wishes,
Paritosh
And just before you head off to celebrate Christmas, do check out our latest piece by José Camacho on why freedom is the real Christmas miracle.
Freedom Is the Real Christmas Miracle
