Jeremy Corbyn, the wintry and discontented Ghost of Seventies Christmases Past, may have spent the past weeks rattling around the political margins. But the rapper Stormzy, the blingtastic Ghost of Christmas Present, has more than made up for this in a manner most befitting of the mass media age. His viral diatribe against our “one hundred per cent racist” nation flashed on millions of smartphones as households settled into holiday hibernation. Generating almost as much hype was a ghoulish visit from the Ghost of Christmas Future, Greta Thunberg, who lamented mass apathy towards our impending climate doom as a guest editor on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Stormzy and Thunberg are the eerie pin-ups of an anti-rational age. They remind us that, though the working-class heartlands are reeling from populist revolt, an intolerant and lazy metrollectual elite continues to dominate our culture and media.

Let us first deal with establishment treasure, Stormzy. The BBC invited him to read from the Bible on Christmas Day and rap “thug-loving” nihilism on Jools Holland’s usually uplifting New Year Hootenanny. He will probably claim the first Number One single of the Roaring Twenties with the subliminally entitled Own It. His crown-wielding portrait hangs in the Tate.