The moustache is back

It is a grand British tradition, that when trying to raise money for charity, we make ourselves look silly. Nowhere was this more true than with Movember. When Movember first came along, you’d see someone on the streets wearing a moustache and the gut reaction was very much along the lines of, ‘Poor lad, he’s doing Movember, good for him for sticking it out.’ The alternative is doing something strenuous, and most of us would rather not. In fact the graver the cause and the more insidious the disease, the more irreverence we lather onto it.

This year however, I saw the ads on the side of buses, appealing for support, and it occurred to me that I needed to read the poster before figuring out what it was for. Why? Well because the moustache is back, and everyone has one these days. In a nation that seems increasingly upset with its past, haven’t we all gone Imperialist in our visage? I cannot personally grow facial hair but those that can seem unable to resist it.