This scenario was famously satirised by the BBC comedy series The Vicar of Dibley.

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The First Minister satirised Labour for demanding the resignation of pretty well every minister - except him.

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Dickens also satirised the law in his novels, such as Bleak House, the tale of a decades-long court case that destroys most of its participants.

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It was closely followed by the Oscar-winning short Great, which satirised Victorian attitudes and the decline of the British Empire, won him the Academy Award and a Bafta in 1976.

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To her credit, Ms Lee does not pass lightly over Wharton's racism, anti-Semitism and anti-feminism, all three prejudices that place her squarely in the company of those she satirised.

ECONOMIST: Literary biography