It’s that time of year again: the Christmas cards of all the party leaders have been released, ready to be widely reproduced and then parsed beyond their capacity to contain meaning. Comment is passed on dead-eyed smiles, lapses of taste and the spines of the books on the shelves in the background, in total violation of all seasonal goodwill directives. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait.
The Camerons
You can tell this wasn’t taken with Christmas in mind – it dates from the prime minister’s triumphant return to Downing Street in May, which explains the preponderance of blue. Sam and Dave seem genuinely at ease – there’s none of the Madame Tussauds stiffness that characterised many of the Blairs’ purpose-posed Christmas efforts – but it’s also a little smug. Not everyone has happy memories of that day.
Jeremy Corbyn
The Labour leader has made a sound choice by leaving himself out of his Christmas card. The snow-covered bike obviously references him, and is almost certainly preferable to the results of an hour spent with a photographer vainly trying to get him to project bonhomie. The image itself – although widely parodied on social media – is pleasing enough, with a nostalgic, winter-of-discontent whiff about it.
Tim Farron
An obvious solution to an annual problem: get some kids to make Christmas cards as part of a constituency-wide competition, pick a winner, print 40,000 copies and avoid all possible criticism. This year’s winning design, by five-year-old Elsie Woolf, is excellent.
Nicola Sturgeon
First minister cards routinely feature artwork by Scottish artists, with proceeds from the sale of prints and the original going to charity. This year’s card is by the illustrator of the Katie Morag children’s books, Mairi Hedderwick. All in all, a pretty unassailable effort.
George Osborne
The chancellor clearly wishes to reinforce the idea that he has a sense of humour about himself, or at least knows how such a quality would work in practice. The drawing, by Telegraph cartoonist Matt Pritchett, pokes fun at Osborne’s hi-vis, can-do persona, and depicts the charming moment just before a protection officer comes out and smashes the snowman flat with a shovel.
