One grotesquely amusing aspect of the current economic crisis has been the sight of our beloved PM desperately trying to hammer home the notion that the predicament should be blamed on ‘global’ factors and is absolutely nothing to do with him, mate. You can’t blame him for trying. After all, refusing to take responsibility for the consequences of one’s own actions has become de rigueur.

Comedian Chris Addison’s slim treatise (subtitled Why Everybody Else is to Blame and You’re Not) aims a gently satirical swipe at this prevailing attitude, offering sharp, amusing arguments as to why certain individuals and institutions are more deserving of blame than we are.

Among those fingered here are the media moguls, EU, oil companies, China and the Secret All-Powerful Organisation that Really Runs the World. It’s persuasively argued and consistently amusing, but at £12.99 for a slim, glorified loo book, you can justifiably turn your ire for your lack of liquidity this Christmas on those who set such prices.

It Wasn’t Me is published by Hodder & Stoughton