It's not so funny when you start to think about it

. . . and realise just how accurately it describes the state of our democracy.

Yawn . . .

This evidently comes as a surprise to people.

Who ever could have guessed such things go on in the halls of power?

Meanwhile, back in the U.S. of A., the only surprise these days is that some in Rupert's own family appear to have briefly strayed off-message:

"[Matthew] Freud told the New York Times he was "ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes's horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to [cue stifled gag reflex]".

Freud, who is married to Elisabeth, Rupert Murdoch's second daughter, was speaking to the NYT for a profile of Ailes, who is President of Fox News, and prefaced his comment by saying that he was "by no means alone within he family or the company" in holding such hostile views of Fox News.

I suspect Wendi has been dispatched to deal with Freud's intemperate remarks.  She is definitely the one to fear: