At no time in the year are there greater demands on our tolerance. The inflated hopes and expectations of Christmas come up against the realities of family gatherings: the frustrations of travel, the scramble to prepare food and buy presents, the enforced bonhomie that swiftly wears thin as those who rarely meet attempt to create ties of kinship. The message of calm and peace seems far removed from the irritations and tensions that too often surface during the long holiday.
Tolerance is a quality that struggles to be heard in the cacophony of urban Britain. There is an impatience, encouraged by commercial pressure, that has no time for those who disagree. The perceived need for sensual and material gratification, the focus on individual rights and