Andrew Watts

The comfort of hating Britain

Credit: Getty Images

I occasionally get sent articles from the ‘London Correspondent of the Papua New Guinea Courier’ – less often, now that most people have realised that it is a satirical blog, not an actual newspaper. The articles are a droll extension of the gag – and it’s a good gag – of describing British politics using the language of foreign correspondents, like referring to ‘UK strongman Rishi Sunak’ or ‘feared interior minister Suella Braverman’.

When I gently pointed out that it was all made up, the only person who admitted she had originally taken one of them for a real article insisted it said something true about the government. The fact that so many people on her Facebook page believed it, she said, told you something.

I sometimes think I would be happier if I were left-wing, mainly because I could pretend that my failures were the result of unfairness or a system stacked against me

It does tell us something, but not about Rishi Sunak.

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