One of the accounts I follow on X is called Exploding Heads. It offers a satirical take on the way we interact with the news, and has a great character called ‘Colin from Portsmouth’ who constantly phones into a radio station to express outrage about the state of the country.
One of the funniest sketches involves him shouting out a ‘list of woke things’ to the bemused radio host, all of which pose a ‘threat to Western civilisation’. They include: The Guardian, the British Army nowadays, almond milk, ‘King Prince Charles’, and the laws of physics.
The British are great at using comedy to take the edge off situations that really rile people, and this provides an important safety valve amidst the rising culture war between left-wing ‘woke agendas’ and ‘traditional values’ of the right.
Should you feel guilty for scrolling past the bad news?
Do you ever feel like switching off the news? I know I do. Another alert flashes up on your phone, …