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What happened to Have I Got News For You this week?

Paul Merton and Ian Hislop were joined by Al Murray in the chair and among the guests was Germaine Greer.

During the days running up to recording (Thursday evening), terrorists have attacked the city of Mumbai,
Woolworths and MFI announced serious woe and various reports of impending or immediate unemployment have been announced across the country.

So Have I Got News For You responds to this with their traditional biting wit and criticism?

Inexplicably not. Save a series of moments of true, traditional Paul Merton (the like of which we have not seen in a long time) the show was a toothless Labour-negated stool pigeon.

The BBC seem to have sent Merton and particularly Hislop to the dentists this week, and performed a particularly violent act of tooth removal. How else can this be explained?

Of course, there were laughs - but the coverage of stories such as a haunted sofa, paintings being hung the wrong way and other inconsequential fluff was frankly insulting, and proof that the BBC is under instructions to amuse the electorate with fluff and leave the real, relevant broadcasting to the increasingly sidelined BBC Two and Radio 4 Newsnight and Today teams.