The South Bank Show presenter has missed the mark this time. Between Baby Shark and Elvis-themed tills, we’ve never been sillier

Melvyn Bragg says Britain is getting more serious. Here are 16 reasons he's wrong

Melvyn Bragg has claimed that the country is getting more serious, on the basis that more and more people are attending literary festivals. “Now that millions of people have gone to university, but have focused on a couple of subjects, the idea of getting a spread of knowledge is attractive,” he said. Now, it could be argued that while Bragg sees the country as an increasingly serious place, that is probably because it is in his interest to see the country as an increasingly serious place. The rest of us, meanwhile, are down here in the dirt marvelling at how profoundly stupid the country is. To prove it, allow me to present some reasons why we are definitely not getting more serious: