Acid tongue...

Comedian Jo Brand is in hot water for a joke suggesting that “unpleasant characters” in the political realm should have battery acid thrown at them, rather than milkshakes (when he heard the words “unpleasant characters”, Nigel Farage immediately recognised himself). By chance I heard the radio programme live, and winced when I heard the joke. Not because it was offensive, but because it broke the first rule of comedy by not being funny. Jo Brand, I thought, can do better than that. Too many people really do have acid thrown at them, and a disproportionate percentage of the victims are women.

Licensed today: the seafront at Aldeburgh in Suffolk...