A typically thoughtful piece from David Brindle, using all of his 32 years’ experience reporting on #socialcare. What a loss to the The Guardian he will be. theguardian.com/society/2020/d…

My Christmas wish list🎄: 1. National lockdown asap 2. Approval of Oxford vaccine asap 3. Extension of Brexit transition period 4. Move health & care workers to top of vaccine priority list 5. Christmas bonus for all key workers 6. Make the universal credit boost permanent

COVID-19: Sikh volunteers deliver almost 2,000 hot meals to stranded lorry drivers in Kent news.sky.com/story/covid-19…

Christmas lunch is cancelled – but it's the human touch that we older people crave theguardian.com/society/2020/d…

If you read one thing on Christmas Eve, it should be this. It's a Charles Dickens for our times. "If the measure of a city is how it treats its 'invisibles', London should be ashamed" | Aditya Chakrabortty theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

I'm a consultant in infectious diseases. 'Long Covid' is anything but a mild illness | Joanna Herman theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

My feature revisiting former miners in Nottinghamshire: 'If anyone had said our mining town would go Tory, I'd have thought they were mad' theguardian.com/politics/2020/…

theguardian.com/politics/2020/… Jonathan Freedland john harris

Your brilliant book All Together Now really helped me to write this piece. I've just finished it and couldn't recommend it highly enough. My book of the year theguardian.com/books/2019/jan…

Sad but true. Not so much for the miners who were in the NUM and have a tradition of solidarity, but certainly true for the next generations. No unions in the sandwich factories and warehouse many work in now Aditya Chakrabortty

Thank you Patrick Butler It's been a pleasure working with everyone Society Guardian for 20 years, reporting and editing on such important social policy issues that others may not consider newsworthy

Is John still around? Debbieann

That's great.

I’ve been in hospitals all over the country this past fortnight, they’re all running hot. #NHS teams who haven’t stopped since March are facing a rapid new surge in #Covid19 cases. They need your help. Stay at home where you can. Wear a mask & keep your distance where you can’t.

I'm so glad I was in a position where I could help to nurture your fledgling career Frances Ryan Now I hope to write more myself.

It's been great getting to know you. Would love to visit you in Devon when it's safe to do so. Keep well.

Lockdown awakened our interest in nature, but it mustn't be at the expense of wildlife | Isabella Tree theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Utterly soul destroying when patients say they spent xmas day with extended family and now everyone is positive for covid. Especially when I am hearing this from patients gasping for breath in the resuscitation room of ED. Completely predictable and entirely avoidable.

Excellent feature from Society Guardian Tom Wall 'We're being impoverished': how English councils have cut care during the pandemic theguardian.com/society/2021/j…

'We're being impoverished': how English councils have cut care during the pandemic theguardian.com/society/2021/j…