I'm ready to vote but not for the memes and culture war

Finally, after what feels like a lifetime, Rishi Sunak has announced the date when we’ll head to the polls to cast our votes for somebody who isn’t him. Social media reacted more or less as you’d expect to news of a “snap” summer election – the first July poll since 1945 – by finding the funny.

- RYAN COOGAN

Users of X (formerly Twitter) quickly coined the term “genny lex” – which, like “platty jubes” and “statey funes” before it, is so irritating, it almost makes you want to spoil your ballot. The online commentariat were also out in force, generating memes, mostly of our esteemed prime minister making his announcement in the pouring rain, looking like the mathematical opposite of Hugh Grant at the end of a Nineties romcom.

There’s an energy in the air that’s already made this election feel different from the usual fare. Maybe it’s because, despite still very much being within the five-year term since we all last voted, we’ve had three whole PMs since then (yes, Truss still counts – even if her time in Downing Street was shorter than the leadership race that got her there). Maybe it’s because the result seems a bit of a foregone conclusion, and none of us can muster the energy to even pretend the Tories have a chance. Maybe it’s because it feels like we’ve been talking about having an election for the past one hundred thousand years, and can’t quite allow ourselves to believe it’s finally happening.