The National:

IT doesn’t seem there’s much the UK Government can get right now (or much more they can get wrong) but who would have thought simply turning on the Christmas tree lights would cause such confusion and hilarious chaos.

A video circulating on social media of the annual Christmas tree light turn on at the UK Parliament has shown only half of the lights switching on after a very anticlimactic countdown.

I'm struggling to think of a better metaphor to sum up the failing UK at the moment and it seems most of social media agreed.

“Sums up the Tory government,” said one person writing on Twitter/X while another said it was a “perfect way to symbolise” those in power at the moment.

Separate images show that things did get better in the end and that all the Christmas tree lights did eventually turn on.

The jokes didn’t stop there though with the half-lit tree viral on social media.

“If the government were Christmas lights it would be this,” said a third person while a fourth joked: “I’m not a gambling man – but I will put everything on red that Keir Starmer will use this in PMQs as a metaphor to hammer the government.”

READ MORE: Anas Sarwar can't resist a bizarre pop at The National

“Seems pretty standard for these times,” another user commented.

I couldn’t agree more. When you can’t even get an on/off switch working, you know something isn’t quite right ...