Britain | Bagehot

Where are all the briefcase wankers?

The nerd:jock ratio in government is askew

An illustration of Ed Miliband clutching a briefcase with his tie flying crookedly over his shoulder.
Illustration: Nate Kitch
|5 min read

“The Inbetweeners”, a cult sitcom broadcast between 2008 and 2010, has a surprising hold over British politics. It followed the lives of four teenage boys, offering an amusing portrait of the often psychopathic cruelty of British teen boys decades before “Adolescence” did it on Netflix without the jokes. Will McKenzie, a nerdy boy holding a briefcase, arrives at a new school and within seconds is dubbed a “briefcase wanker”.

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