Tribune – Comment, news and reviews from Britain's democratic left

On a television programme about religion, Tony Blair made his confession: weapons of mass destruction, the stated aim for going to war with Iraq, were merely an excuse and not the reason.

When factory worker Viv Nicholson, the famous pools winner, was asked what she would do with the money, she told reporters: “Spend, spend, spend!” Her phrase passed into language, much like Mandy Rice Davies’ remark: “Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?” To the best of my knowledge, Viv lives quietly these days in Castleford, having found God. Truly, he lurks in the most unlikely places.

Copenhagen’s climate change talks will have a big impact and Unison is taking the lead in going green, says Dave Prentis

It hasn’t been a very good few weeks for climate science. The Copenhagen summit trundles onwards to certain fudge or failure. A recent Times poll appears to show fewer than half of all Britons even believing that global warming exists, and the storm rages on over the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit.

Whichever way you look at it, Christmas is a wonderfully delusional time of the year. Whether it’s believing in Father Christmas or in the dubious obstetrics in Bethlehem two and bit thousand years ago, or deluding yourself that rampant commercialism mostly fuelled by personal debt will bring you happiness, none of it really stands up to close scrutiny. Even a tipsy feeling of general bonhomie towards your workmates (if you’re lucky enough to be in work) is, at heart, a delusion which dissipates with the next morning’s hangover, when you’re likely to recognise the true nature of things with a hideous clarity.