Want a sense of the national mood? Watch Gogglebox

It is always worth seeking out other voices, even when – perhaps especially when – there seems almost total agreement about the reasons and who is to blame, writes Mary Dejevsky

What, I wonder, would the Gogglebox crowd have thought if they had received the mini-Budget ‘unspun’ (Channel 4)

American diplomats posted to London have been advised to watch Channel 4‘s Gogglebox to glimpse the “real” Britain. It is a good call. Gogglebox, if you haven’t watched it, is a television show that follows a diverse selection of households... watching television. Across geography, age, and class, their pithy comments and often savage humour offer a window into what might pass for the national soul.

I would suggest, though, that it is not just foreign diplomats who should be prescribed regular doses of Gogglebox. The chattering classes of the metropolis could do with some of the same treatment, too. They might also – if they can’t bear to leave the capital – try tuning in to late-night commercial radio phone-ins, or even to the occasional snatch of GB News or TalkTV. It is always worth seeking out other voices, even when – perhaps especially when – as with this country’s latest political meltdown, there seems almost total agreement about the reasons and who is to blame.

I hold no candle for the outgoing prime minister. She had no democratic mandate beyond her party’s labyrinthine leadership contest. She was not the first choice of her party’s MPs, and the country at large had no say in her elevation to No 10. Add the circumstances of her election – the messy removal of Boris Johnson and the public alarm about the cost of living – and her lamentable communications skills, and she was never going to have an easy ride.