So David Cameron can tell lies but standup comics can’t… - October 2015 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - October 18th, 2015

On Monday, the content provider Boris Johnson positioned a typically triumphant column in the Telegraph. Having had a hail of multicoloured children’s swimming pool balls flung at him by suddenly energised disabled people in Manchester, the mischievous reaver explained to Telegraph readers that people throwing eggs and calling the Conservatives scum are the same as…

Now even Bake Off is being used to stir the pot on immigration - October 2015 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - October 11th, 2015

On Tuesday, the unflappable Conservative party leadership hopeful Theresa May opined that high levels of immigration make it “impossible to build a cohesive society”. To be fair, so do massive social inequality, a lack of affordable housing and systematic corporate tax avoidance on an industrial scale by the government’s friends and backers. Ka-pow! Take that…

Where dreams come true: a fantasia on the theme of a liberal pope - October 2015 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - October 4th, 2015

At first, I admit, I was angered by the distress that Pope Francis, the Richard Dawkins of Catholicism, had caused during this week’s capricious state visit to Disneyland, California. Though I have many religious friends, had Pope Francis been one of them, his obtuse behaviour in Disneyland would have tested the limits of our relationship.…

Cameron’s piggy is in the middle of a question we’re not asking - September 2015 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - September 27th, 2015

Long after their relationship ended, one of David Cameron’s ex-girlfriends joined a nunnery, so wounded was she by their parting. It is hard to know what religious comforts the supposed pig at the centre of the Daily Mail’s current allegations might later have pursued following Cameron’s brief and perfunctory dalliance with it, primarily because it…

Farty TV and BBC Three - January 2015 Chortle - By Stewart Lee - January 21st, 2015

The redoubtable independent production company, Farty Television, have offered £100million to take over the digital channel BBC Three, which is facing a radical on-line only future, due to government assaults on the licence fee. Though public fondness for BBC Three rests largely on the reputations of quality programs like Gavin and Stacey (Baby Cow), Pulling…

A Journey To Avebury: Stewart Lee Interviews Julian Cope - June 2014 TheQuietUs - By Stewart Lee - June 27th, 2014

Julian Cope’s first novel, 131, opens with its protagonist, a former rock star brilliantly named Rock Section, trapped in an aircraft toilet, covered in his own excrement. “Your novel begins at the point where many would end,” I suggest. “Yes,” agrees Cope, “it’s the same as ‘Like A Hurricane’ by Neil Young. Straight in with…