Nicky Haslam has produced his list of things that are common for 2026: Diet Coke and being thin; beards and quails’ eggs; the word “nuanced”; the phrase “no-brainer” (on the grounds that you wouldn’t call anything a “brainer”). It’s the eighth year that he’s put his list on a tea towel, which retails for about £50. I could think of some disparaging words for spending that much on a tea towel, none of which are “common”.

Still, I admire his chutzpah: he’s fashioned a class war, then waved it away nonsensically: “It’s nothing to do with class,” he told the Times. “It’s common in the sense........

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