It’s prison break – the new must-watch Marvel comic mini-series

How do you distract the public from nine straight days of coverage of rows about dangerous concrete? Easy! Let a suspected terrorist escape from prison. Tom Peck on the fine art of ‘deadcatting’...

When someone turns the last decade of British politics into a10-part Netflix series — think ‘The Crown’ but a bit more ‘Fawlty Towers’ — it certainly would not be beyond the Conservative party to claim some of the royalties (AFP)

One thing you can say for the government is that they always like to give their neverending sequence of interlocking s***shows a real filmic quality, and at this point, it’s legitimate to wonder whether they’re doing it on purpose. When someone turns the last decade of British politics into a 10-part Netflix series — think The Crown but a bit more Fawlty Towers — it certainly would not be beyond the Conservative Party to claim some of the royalties.

It’s difficult to believe, but nevertheless true, that just as a materials science expert called Dr Chris Goodier was spending yesterday morning publishing his findings on the structural integrity of aerated concrete, and suggesting that it’s not just schools but also hospitals and prisons that are at risk of collapse, a suspected terrorist had already sellotaped himself to the undercarriage of a delivery van and was being driven straight out the front gate of HMP Wandsworth.