‘Good opinion and morals’ – The Bonfire of Insanities by John Crace
Young Critic, Noah, shares what he thought of John Crace’s appearance at Lichfield Literature Festival to speak about his new book ‘The Bonfire of the Insanities: How Does This Government Thing Work Again?’.
John Crace had his show just right for an audience of an average age of around 60. Crace is the Guardian’s longstanding satirical sketch writer, picking apart the political landscape week in and week out. As for what he said, well just what anybody with a good opinion and morals would say, but with a greater wit and insight than most.
As many would, he condemned Nigel Farage saying he is a buffoon of a man. However, he did something most political speakers couldn’t do: he managed to engage the crowd, and they didn’t boo or fall asleep.
His one unpopular opinion though, was when he suggested that the 2010-2015 coalition were the best days of the government. While that may have been controversial, most of the audience agreed that Theresa May (and then later Liz Truss) ruined the country. As we went back on to the subject of his sketch, Crace told us how he retired Michael Fabricant from his work (I mean quite rightly 75 years of age and looking like Donald Trump, do the maths) and the Tories wanted him back in the sketch. However, Fabricant was often the butt of MPs’ jokes, and Crace summed it up neatly: ‘Make fun of one MP, and you make friends with 649 others.’
The next item on the agenda was the Tories. To the agreement of most of the room, he declared that Kemi Badenoch was useless, with one good idea: that Britain should step away from war, as the UK in more recent years has “snatched defeat from the jaws of victory” in conflicts in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Libya.
Now we all miss Queen Lizzie II (God rest her soul) and Crace was of the opinion that Liz Truss had played a role in her passing. The last photo of the Queen was with Liz Truss when she was formally introduced to her. His theory was that the late Queen thought Truss was so bad she died of old age just having seen her. In fact, according to Crace, during Truss’ reign she did more damage to the economy than the Wall Street Crash of 1929, that’s how bad she was. To put that in perspective, Truss was in charge for 49 days although Crace pointed out it was actually 39, as there was 10 days state mourning after the Queen’s death.
Next was Rishi Sunak. The UK government was a poisoned chalice, and he was lucky to receive it, although it obviously caused his downfall from British politics (the most well published thing he did was criticise Alex Carey for stumping Jonny Bairstow during the 2023 ashes). According to Crace, “Rishi didn’t really like me”, I wonder why not when your job is to make fun of politicians just like Spitting Image used to do.
However, Crace said that with Farage, Sunak and Trump you have to sketch them seriously otherwise they might actually do what you say (I mean Donald trump does enough damage on his own). He suggested Farage is a one-man-band, except for his best ‘friend’ Richard Tice, who Crace pointed out has a small fortune, mainly because he started with a big fortune and lost it all. He then stated that the Green Party leader Zach Polanski is only really getting votes as the country don’t want Reform in power as that really would make the country crumble.
Now, we all love our parents but if you bring them, come the question section make sure they don’t say “With the greatest respect you’re not a spring chicken” when asking Crace about his potential successor and end the evening on a low. Overall, the audience enjoyed it and Crace kept them awake.
By Noah B
If you’re aged 11-18 and would like to be a festival reviewer, applications for Young Critics are open for Lichfield Festival – find out more on our website https://lichfieldfestival.org/aspire/young-critics/