The Archbishop of Canterbury on... who's Trump putting in the White House next? The f**king Joker?

WAKING up with a hangover that causes me to emit several small pieces of my brain when I sneeze, I realise I have had a nightmare. I dreamt I was in my chambers, and looking in the mirror I was met with the face of an insipid, bespectacled fellow with a somewhat poorly defined jawline. 

At that moment, one of my senior clerics burst into the room, clutching a mobile phone. ‘Archbishop Welby,’ he said. (Archbishop who?) ‘News has broken about your failure to report the prolific child abuser John Smyth. I fear you have no choice but to stand down.’

I was so confused I was unable to speak. ‘Resign, your grace!’ my cleric urged me. ‘It is over. You must resign today!’

Upon which I awoke with a start. The nightmare fresh in my mind, I headed straight for early morning mass at Westminster Abbey. My sermon ran as follows. 

‘My dearest brethren,’ I said. ‘I just had the worst fucking dream. I dreamt I was some chinless cunt called Justin who’d been covering up for a nonce for years. Can you fucking imagine that? It’s a disgrace. You fuckers should be grateful you’ve got an archbishop with some morals. Now let’s sing a fucking hymn.’

The mass concluded, I return to my chambers to take a light breakfast and peruse a periodical. Therein I read that Donald Trump is appointing Matt Gaetz to the post of attorney general. Mr Gaetz had been under investigation for the sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl.

Fuck me till my ears bleed, are we living in some sort of Batman movie minus fucking Batman, or what? A bunch of fucking comedy villains is about to run America! I mean, who next? The Penguin? Mr Freeze? Fucking Liz Truss? My only hope is that this bunch of clowns will be so ravingly incompetent that within a week they’ll have burned down the White House and tried to put out the fire with buckets of fucking tinsel! Holy fuck!

Andrew Doyle, the British comedian whose career is largely based on mocking social justice activists, is to teach a course on ‘wokeness’ at the New College of Florida.

Seriously? Saying what? Is taking the piss out of exaggerated cliches about ‘woke’ a fucking academic discipline now? How are you going to fill ten seconds, let alone a fucking hour? If you’re just gonna have a pop at people for being nice to each other instead of sneering at anyone different for having the temerity to exist, it’s gonna be a pretty fucking short lecture: ‘Pronouns are bad. I am talking tiresome reactionary shit. Class fucking dismissed.’

Wes Streeting has said he will sack NHS chiefs who do not meet the targets he has set them. However, he will not provide them with the funding required to meet said targets.

You know, of all the greasy, grifting, anti-Labour, dead-eyed hypocrites, craven line-toers, brazen hacks and mechanical fucking bullshit spouters who have taken over the fucking Labour party like briefcase-touting zombies, you, Streeting, are the fucking worst. You’re gonna sell off the NHS brick by fucking brick to the fucking vulture capitalists who feather your fucking nest! We see you a fucking mile off, and looking like a terminally annoying, precocious little 12-year-old shit isn’t fooling anyone.

Finally, this week saw the birthday of King Charles, who has turned 76 years of age. 

Face it, you’re having a miserable time of it, aren’t you? You have to keep your mouth shut these days, rather than yapping merrily away on topics you know fuck all about from a perch of aristocratic fucking ignorance. You wear the crown like it’s an upturned fucking chamber pot on your head and you and your buck-toothed fucking son have been exposed as two of the worst leeches in the fucking country! The fucking game’s up! You couldn’t be less fucking popular if it turned out you went out every Sunday shooting your fleeing servants for fun on your fucking estate!

Mash Blind Date: 'We just didn't have any streaming services in common'

CAN Ryan Whittaker, Now TV and Apple TV, and Hannah Tomlinson, Netflix and Disney Plus, forge a meeting of minds despite the gulf between them? 

Hannah on Ryan

First impression?

Pretty good: handsome enough apart from that jaw, clean, tall, nice shirt. Would swipe right, etcetera. All good because I was worried they’d blind date me up with a munter.

How was conversation? 

I’ll be real, we struggled to connect. He was enthusing about this thing Masters of the Air which I just could not fathom what it was. Like, a movie? A video game? Apparently it’s a TV show, but it’s not one I’ve ever heard of. I came back by asking his favourite memable Rivals moment. He hadn’t seen it. We were silent then until the waiter came.

Memorable moments?

I guess when he’d never even heard of Selling Sunset, that got an incredulous laugh out of me, but otherwise? It was just us taking turns to say shows then the other one shaking their head.

Favourite thing about Ryan? 

He seems like a nice guy. He’s just made poor media choices.

A capsule description? 

Puts prestige television before people, which is sad.

Was there a spark? 

How could there be? We’re from different worlds.

What happened afterwards? 

We parted, not without sadness. His final words ‘You should at least try Severance’ still ringing in my ears.

What would you change about the evening? 

I wouldn’t have been paired with someone entirely incompatible.

Will you see each other again?  

You know, I’m not even sure we saw each other tonight.

Ryan on Hannah

First impression?

Excellent. Really pretty, confident, engaging. Definitely someone I could curl up and watch The Day of the Jackal with.

How was conversation? 

Hard going. She’s not seen House of the Dragon but at least she’d heard of it, which is more than I can say for Barry, Silo, The Morning Show, or The Franchise. She asked if I’d seen Rivals. I explained that’s like asking a sommelier for cherryade.

Memorable moments?

When she’d genuinely never even heard of Slow Horses. I realised she wasn’t just alienated from modern culture, she’s built herself a bunker of trash television and is hiding from the world.

Favourite thing about Hannah? 

She seems a good person. I just don’t know what trauma she’s carrying through life to make Cobra Kai seem like the answer.

A capsule description? 

Where she walks, I cannot follow.

Was there a spark? 

No possibility of one. We didn’t have a single show in common. Why would you choose streaming services that don’t even carry The Sopranos, except wilful ignorance?

What happened afterwards? 

We parted. I didn’t look back, not even when she shouted ‘You’d probably like Shogun’. 

What would you change about the evening? 

I would have stayed home and finished the new series of Bad Sisters. 

Will you see each other again? 

No. It could have been so different if they hadn’t cracked down on password sharing.