THE latest female celebrity to ‘debut her grey hair’ is described as bold, stunning, brave and so on.

Meanwhile, the world is on fire, flooding, melting and withering. ‘Priorities’, I shout at the screen as I embed myself further into the sofa and reach for another pack of cheesy Wotsits.

Compartmentalising stuff in our lives probably keeps us going, keeps us sane. I can’t do anything about people dying in the rising waters of Pakistan, so maybe it’s ok to go dancing.

None of us can or should perhaps be in a constant state of concern for the world we’re in or we would explode. And what’s the good of that?

But that doesn’t mean we should be in denial about natural or manmade disasters, or our part in creating or prolonging them. (And since the vast majority of politicians in the world are male, ‘manmade’ is the correct adjective here!)

It certainly doesn’t mean we can shrug off the need for diplomacy in order to make a crowd-pleasing joke. In answer to a journalist’s question about ‘France – friend or foe?’, Liz Truss, MP and the person seeking selection as the country’s Prime Minister said ‘the jury’s out on that’ to approving applause from the Tory voters in her audience.

It was a gift for France’s President Macron who was able to reinforce his key message for French voters about clumsy xenophobia from the UK’s incompetent politicians.

It seems that Ms Truss is determined to follow the Boris Johnson clown school of international relations.

It will get her chosen by the Tory party members but what then?

Humour has its place of course. The cartoons and commentary about the United Kingdom that feature in European media are certainly biting. But since few of we Brits can read or speak any other languages the scorn and pity of other countries flies high above our largely monolingual heads.

Working for an international organisation is an education. I sit in meetings where the United Kingdom is removed from the list of countries our clients will invest in.

It’s an unemotional decision for them. Brexit means it’s far more expensive and complicated now to include the UK. ‘Simples’, as the meerkat in the comparethemarket.com advert says. Businesses like to make profits.

There is no argument for making less profit by operating here in the UK.

This is why many of us are not giving up on a campaign for membership of the EU. In life, most decisions can be followed by another one.

Changing your mind is an example of listening and using your brain. Brexit isn’t working. Time for a new decision – however long it takes.