The Herald: Iain Macwhirter Unspun banner new

The two best political dramas on TV right now are, inevitably, Nordic.  “When The Dust Settles” is Borgen-plus-terrorism.  “The Inner Circle” is unusual in making the politician at the centre of a sex scandal the good guy.

The only problem is that these must-see dramas are on the All4 streaming service, which means you have to put up with adverts about every ten minutes.  These are very definitely NOT must -see. Especially at this time of year when Christmas is almost literally rammed down our throats with endless food commercials. In November too.

I haven’t watched terrestrial TV adverts much for years, and I’m struck by how much they’ve changed.  Commercials used to avoid politics like the plague. Now they’ve become enthusiastic players in the culture wars.  

This Christmas we are being swamped by a wave of the phenomenon called “woke capitalism”. This is capitalism that still tries to sell you stuff, but instead of concentrating on the product, it wants you to buy its progressive morality.


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