Works of fiction

The news that Iain Duncan Smith's Department of Work and Pensions had created two fictional former benefits claimants shouldn't have come as much of a revelation - after all, they looked much too cheery in the circumstances, and the Tories have a history of inventing people (Boris Johnson is surely too improbable to be real). Neither should the fact that the story was meat and drink to Stewart Lee come as any surprise. Here's his response to the incident, which is (naturally) well worth reading, not least for the reference to the "once widely reviled public infotainer, Chilliwack the Aids Ptarmigan".