However, tomorrow is Finland's Independence Day and it needs a bit of support from those of the secular persuasion. No flags, though if Mats, our military man, was here, he'd certainly be out at 0600 tomorrow with a neatly folded semaphoric textile. He's a bit of a stickler for flag procedures.

It's a public holiday - and that's worth celebrating. Tomorrow evening almost the entire Finnish population will be glued to the Independence Day gala at the President's Palace. It starts with about 90 minutes of plain vanilla handshaking (where are you Warhol?) as the President greets diplomats, clergy, parliamentarians, civil servicers, the good works crowd, the genuine celebrities with something to celebrate, and then samples from the B, C and D-lists.

As this hypnotic ritual transfixes families from Helsinki to Rovaniemi and beyond, the commentators argue about who is who in the queue. And there's a resident fashion consultant or two to critique the ball gowns - and this is a ball gown event par excellence.

I won't be watching. Haven't done so for about 20 years. It gets very very hot and sweaty in the ballroom, which makes people thirsty, so they drink more punch, and then at midnight they all go off to swanky after parties and get trashed. Last year I saw an African diplomat rolling in the snow outside one of our trendier establishments.

All this will be solved - so they promise - by the renovations in the Palace which start next year.

You can't be me, I'm taken

Farewell to Mr Brubeck.

You can't be me, I'm taken

Politics - Ian Dunt - Osborne loses touch with reality

The gap between reality and fiction starts with the name. As commuters struggled to get to work because of ice on the line, George Osborne unveiled the autumn statement. There was nothing autumnal about it. This was winter all over.

By the time the chancellor got to the Commons, reality was his plaything, an annoying sound in the corner of the room which he could ignore if he put on headphones.

His tone was victorious, valedictory, magnanimous, triumphant. "It's taking time, but the British economy is healing," he began, starting as he meant to go on, with nonsense.

money quote

Osborne repeated the same set of policies we've heard from him before, with the confident expectation they would produce different results.

Full of stupid. Shockingly.

Details here, if you want to lose the will to live.

Telegraph -  - Bristol Christian Union 'bans women speakers'

   Bristol University Christian Union have forbidden women from speaking at their weekly meetings. The move reflects the recent decision by the Church of England synod to reject the introduction of female bishops, consequently ignoring the last century of the equal rights movement.

    Having spent `a lot of time exploring this issue, seeking God's wisdom on it and discussing it together' the CU executive committee decided that it was no longer appropriate for women to teach alone at weekly meetings, or be the main speaker at the CU weekend away. Women are now also banned from speaking alone at the group's mission weeks.

    However, it's not all gloom and doom: women are allowed to speak as a double act with their husbands. Those who are unmarried must remain silent.