I know it's normal to send thank-you notes after Christmas, but as regular readers here may have noted, I am happy to break rules, and so I am sending this one on Christmas Eve.
I want to thank everyone who has read this blog this year. I genuinely appreciate people doing so. It is really quite strange to think that there will have been 10 million views of this blog in 2025, which will be more than 3 million more than last year. All I can say for that is, thank you.
And thank you too to all those who have offered their thanks to me, including the man who stopped me in the street as I was heading out for a coffee yesterday. I don't think we had ever met before, but he stopped me, saying he simply wanted to wish me a happy Christmas and say how much he enjoyed the videos and blogs this year, and how much he valued them. It was, in fact, his comment that made me think about writing this, because I realised I wanted to say thank you to everyone else in turn.
There is, most especially, one group of people whom I particularly want to thank, and they are those who have commented here. I might set the framework for what happens on this blog by publishing content every day, but there are many more comments published here than posts, and the vast majority are positive contributions to debate. I really value them, as I know many readers do.
Some of the commentators are regulars. PSR, Schofield, John Warren, Andrew, Ivan Horrocks, Clive Parry, Mike Parr, the ‘Colonel”, Andrew Broadbent, John Boxall and RobertJ (a new addition to this list this year) add many comments, but there are many more who now make regular contributions, and please accept my apologies if I have not named you. I am sure I have missed out some important people, and if I have, I am sorry. But, and I stress this, I value everyone who makes regular comments, often with very particular insights to add. I am genuinely grateful for the interaction, and I did, quite literally, read them all. And even if you contributed just once, I am still thankful. I never realised that this blog would become a community when I started it in June 2006.
So, my wish is, have a good Christmas. We will be publishing every day. But I will also be taking a lot of time off. I hope you also get that chance, and can share your holiday with those who matter to you. Go well, in other words, as I am inclined to say. It's been one heck of a year.
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Buy me a coffee!
Wishing you and your family a happy Christmas and a wonderful 2026.
Thanks for all you shed light on Richard.
Thanks, Geoff
To quote Raymond Williams, “ To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing ”. Your work brings hope. Thank you.
Thanks
A big thank you Richard for all your work. If I ever see you in the Two Magpies in Blakeney I’ll thank you in person (or at your event in Cambridge!). Merry Christmas to you and your family.
A favourite cafe…
But no triups mplanned right now
So, Cambridge it might be
Happy Christmas
And thank you Richard and ‘team Murphy’ for everyday shedding light and understanding on the economy and politics, for sparking comments and conversations and helping the many – who care and crave change – question and explore. As we do, we join you in your ministry. Many the light shine brighter and reach further in 2026.
Thanks
Happy Christmas
Thank you. Mainly for making me think. We don’t always agree – and I hope that is not too irritating.
The emails are sent, the out of office is on, time to focus on what is really important in life.
I value the challenges!
Happy Christmas
Merry Christmas to you all, and I wish that 2026 will be interesting in some positive ways.
Thank you
happy Christmas
Thank You All
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
And to you!
Thx for the mention, thx for the hope, thx for the truth, thx for sticking at it (over decades).
Have a good Christmas.
Here’s to a 2026 where hope, justice and practical planning for the politics of care in government, triumph over despair, division, pleonexia, hate and fecklessness, here and abroad.
KUTGW!
DLTBGYD!
(clue – what do Margaret Attwood and Michael Mates have in common?)
Have a good Christmas, and my genuine thanks for your contributions. .
A very happy Christmas to you and your family. Thank you for all your invaluable insights and ideas. You have greatly influenced me and many of my friends who now follow you regularly.
All the very best for the coming years.
Many thanks, Richard – and to your family. Have a good Christmas.
Merry Christmas, Richard, to you and the family. Have a fun, relaxing and enjoyable time. Rest up and recharge the batteries.
And thank you very much for all your efforts this year. It is greatly appreciated.
Also, Merry Christmas to all the readers of this blog.
Craig
P.S. 2025 flew by in the blink of an eye. No doubt, 2026 will do the same.
Thanks, Craig. Happy Christmas
A happy Christmas and a guid New Year to you and your family, Professor.
Thank you! Happy Christmas.
Thank you Richard for all of your hard work and brining clarity on many topics most people would regard as highly complex, you have demystified many.
Let’s do our utmost to forget about the problems in 2026, they are quite frankly irrelevant, let’s focus instead on the solutions. Perhaps, we need Central Banks under control, held accountable for their actions and decentralise money distribution at the local level via local banks who care about and understand the needs of those in the locality.
Merry Christmas to you, your family and all blog readers and participants.
Thanks, Ian. I am not sure I wholly agree your solution – but that’s the merit of having a place to discuss things. Ands Happy Christmas.
Thank you Richard for your hard work here over the year, and thank you for allowing this old anarchist to express views that might not be entirely consistent with your beliefs. We all seem to be pulling in the same direction here and a variety of opinions are important to avoid the echo-chamber effect.
Happy Christmas!
Agreed, Matthew.
And have a good Christmas
Thanks for all the writing this year Richard. Merry Christmas to you and all your family!
Thanks, Andy.
Have a good Christmas
I often feel about this site as I do when I rise early to watch the dawn – anything is possible, there is another way. I echo what contributor Toby Veall says when he says “your work brings hope”. So thank you Richard and best wishes and a Happy Christmas to you and your family.
Many thanks, Steve. I genuinely live in hope.
Go well this Christmas
My mother taught me that three things in life are free – ‘a smile’, ‘a please’ and ‘a thank you’. Your photos, especially Snape Maltings, make me smile, I say please for more of your blogs, and I say thank you for your blogs and for the comments thereon, all of which I appreciate. Thank you for all of this and ongoing – meanwhile, a very happy Christmas to you and your family, and all the very best for a happy, healthy and peaceful 2026.
Many thanks, Susan.
Thanks for your commentary.
And have a good Christmas.
Season’s Greetings from Brittany to Richard & the family and to all readers & commenters of this truly remarkable blog, with all best wishes for the coming year in these increasingly troubled times on so many fronts.
Joyeux Noël
I very much want to second the ‘community’ aspect that you raise Richard. To feel but a very small part of a whole, disseminating such important messages, is both encouraging and comforting.
With the quality of so many of the people that gather here change is undeniably and, I venture to say, unstoppable.
Compliments of the season to all.
Thanks Rob, and for your contributions. Happy Christmas.
And thank you Richard and Team Murphy for your prodigious output , always challenging, always insightful and uncompromising ‘as you see it’ – in a good way . Thanks for the unexpected mention – and enjoy the festivities.
(From Kings College chapel Nine Lessons and Carols (virtually))
Go well, Andrew.
Thank you Richard, your team and everyone who comments, contributes and argues, for a fantastic year of blogs which seem to have risen to new heights.
Recently ‘Polanski, Meadway and a bit of Murphy’ was an especially rewarding post with really valuable comments and links; ditto ‘What is really wrong with the NHS?’
Best wishes to all and looking forward hoping for a lasting outbreak of honesty, empathy and peace in the world.
Thanks, Hannah
Happy Christmas
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours!
And indeed, huge thanks to you and ‘team Murphy’ for the blogs, videos and moderating and responding to the comments.
It has all helped clarify and reinforce my understanding of ‘what is’ and ‘what “they” like us to think is – which isn’t’.
Enjoy a well-earned (?) break; and I look forward to more in 2026 – including the in-person meeting in Cambridge and the ‘MMT book’ (for which I have a rather interesting possible use – which I’d prefer to explain in person, not a public forum).
Thanks
See you 8n February
The book is going to require more thought
Happy Christmas
Thanks, Richard, for introducing me to believable economics with a heart.
Wishing you and your family a very happy Christmas.
Many thanks, Peter.
Happy Christmas
I’d like to return the thanks, I listen and read regularly and very much appreciate someone of your standing being in the heterodox corner. Am genuinely chuffed at your replies. I have to give a special shout out to your son and others on the technical side. The delivery and quality is consistently high. The transcripts, ai summaries etc make the material much more accessible. And I reckon you get good back up from your wife. So Merry Christmas to all the family!
Thanks – and I will share that with them all. We are all together today, which will be fun.
Thanks for your many illuminating posts over the year. I think some of the recent ones, especially on explaining how to use MMT, are very helpful as tools to convert friends/ colleagues who are still enthralled by conventional economic fearmongering (in my case other members of the Liberl Democrats).
Thinking of tools, I liked the post on Toolkits. I thought CliveParry’s comment was spot on. Neoliberal economics may have the toolkit, but a toolkit is useless if you don’t know how to use it. My image is of Rachel Reeves keeping on hitting a screw with a hammer.
I hope you hae a relaxing break with plenty of birdwatching!
They should be good on the East Lothian beaches near me now too.
Happy Christmas!
Denis
Thank you
Enjoy East Lothian – it has a great coast I intend to visit this year, for birdwatching above all else (gannets are a favourite).
Happy Christmas
Let me know when you’re coming, in case I can help – I have a contact who researches the gannets on the Bass Rock.
Have you read the chapter on gannets in Adam Nicholson’s `The Seabirds’ Cry’ ? Very interesting, but they don’t sound the most loveable of birds – bullied when young, they take it out on the next generation when they grow older – now what species does that remind me of ? 🙁
Very good
Will let you know
Thanks. Not booked yet – just in the plans
Richard
So, this time or any time, happy to express deep gratitude for your dedication to developing perspectives of common interest for common benefit. It’s a whole life trajectory replete with achievements even though we’d all wish more for you and the cause. Never forget the revitalising energy your focused intelligence puts about, you’ll only see slivers of that passed back here or anywhere but it is HUGE and can still be game changing !
Many thanks, Tim, and Happy Christmas.
“I never realised that this blog would become a community”
When you pin your heart to your sleeve you cannot help but build the caring community that your blog has become. We are all grateful for that.
Have a peaceful Christmas with your loved ones. I wish you Norfolk skies to marvel at, birds to photograph, and more readers to find your blog and appreciate your thoughtful words in 2026.
And here’s a reminder of what an uncaring community looks – and feels – like. (George Robert Sims, 1877)
https://allpoetry.com/Christmas-Day-In-the-Workhouse
Thank you
Go well this Christmas.
With thanks to you and everyone else contributing to this blog for the sanity you bring when everything else feels mad. Happy Christmas.
Thanks, and Happy Christmas
Late to the party and tributes! Having a household of 14 for Christmas is my excuse!
Thank you Richard for giving me the tools to talk political macroeconomics and challenge the perceived wisdom of those who tell me they know better; they now know better not to say so!
My youngest gained a post—grad qual in Economics 2 yrs ago and today we had a lengthy conversation on the way to Bakewell where i did better than hold my own, thanks to this blog!!!
He informed me that during his course he twice emailed his professor (Birbeck College) who was delivering the course on his position with MMT. The prof didn’t have the courtesy to reply!!
On this blog I feel I represent the ‘what! Have I been fooled all my life by dissemblers of the first order’ community.
Massively empowered ever since your first appearance at Keele, Richard, and your recent visit has certainly caused conversation of a frenetic kind!
My background is music. Richard you have enabled me to score a new chapter in my life, one that hears all the dissonance resolving in a pleasing confluence of sound. Just need to retune Neo’s now:)))
Booked my place in February and dragging along an opponent who is willing to hear what you have to say, in person.
Wishing you and all your family a hope-filled happy New Year!
Thanks Martin. See you in February.