Regular readers may remember the controversy over whether the words of the hymn ‘I vow to thee my country’ were, as some idiotic parson suggested, too reprehensible to be sung in today’s PC C of E. Well, sensitive souls can relax. Songwriter Billy Bragg has come to the rescue with lyrics so irritating that I will now look at ‘Imagine’ with strange new respect. Some of the words can be found in this Daily Telegraph report. The whole nightmare concludes like this:

“For there is a simple principle/ That no one shall displace/ We are all alike in humankind/ We are the human race.”

And with that, I must admit, I was so overwhelmed with nausea that I had to go and lie down.