Tate's Naked Tree

Tate Britain's Christmas tree has become an annual joke, with all sorts of daft ideas and stupid gimmicks cropping up. This year the powers-that-be invited Giorgio Sadotti to do his thing in the gallery's neoclassical Rotunda. Today he unveiled his effort: a Norwegian spruce entitled Flower Ssnake, unadorned except for a coiled bullwhip and a circle of silver postcards around its base. Could this be the artist's idea for controlling student riots in London? No, the bullwhip is to drive out the spirit of Christmas during a ceremony in the gallery on Twelfth Night. Don't think I'll bother, thanks. For me, the spirit of Christmas was driven out a long time ago. It looks as though a generation of students feel the same way. Ironically, before the last election our politicians were worrying about how to engage with the young and persuade them to vote. The Liberals cracked it with a pledge to oppose tuition fee rises. Disillusioned teenaged voters now know better than to trust lying politicians. And when democracy fails, rioters hit the streets....