Tale is still relevant

It’s been 175 years since Charles Dickens released his classic novella A Christmas Carol.

When we were kids we used to watch it whatever time it was on, and never missed it at Christmas.

It was, and is, a classic story always adapting in one way or another but the narrative was always the same, the main protagonist was Ebenezer Scrooge a loan shark and business man.

At the beginning he is a cold hearted miser who despised Christmas. He gets four ghostly visitors, one his ex-business partner Jacob Marley, who shows him how his mean behaviour has affected those around him.

At the end of the story he is relieved to discover he has time to change his ways and transforms into a kind hearted generous human being.

It’s a terrific story that no one does better than Charles Dickens.

The themes of wealth and injustice are clear comments on the inequalities of wealth distribution in Victorian England.

Charles Dickens used these themes in all of his novels as his family had spent a short time in the workhouse, and that lived with him all his life.

He would turn in the grave if he could see how our Government is allowing these Victorian times to come back to some of its citizens, and our own Scrooges threatening to leave our country if a government that promises a more fair society gets into power. Ged Taylor