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These days it is not unusual for prime ministers to put pictures of themselves on their Christmas cards. In a letter published in The Times on December 14, Alistair Lexden said that Stanley Baldwin probably began the practice — with unfortunate results.
Sir, So Dave and Samantha have put a picture of themselves on their Christmas card again (report, Dec.12). The first prime minister to convey the message of the angels in this manner seems to have been Stanley Baldwin. In 1928 he dispatched from No 10 a small oval photograph of himself decked with holly and mistletoe, with the words “May God, Good Will and Good Neighbourhood be your company Xmas 1928”. Perhaps even this impeccably one-nation message stirred divine displeasure. At the general election the following year he lost the largest single-party parliamentary majority of modern times.
Lord Lexden
House of Lords