How can the latest Thick of It episodes compete with reality?

'The Thick of It' will return to our screens for a fourth series in the Autumn (BBC)

Armando Iannucci announced yesterday that The Thick of It had finished filming seven new episodes. Since the last series ended in 2009, the Coalition has taken the show's absurdist mantle and sprinted off into the night with it. Here are just some of the potential plots ruled out for being too ridiculous even for TTOI:

* Veteran Tory MP Peter Mannion (Roger Allam), refers to self "chillaxing" on Radio 4's Today.

* The Prime Minister sends a text to a newspaper executive confusing the meaning of a popular acronym. (Note – it's not Malcolm Tucker's NOMFuP) See also: horse, a borrowed.

* During a fuel crisis, a minister advises people to stockpile petrol "in a jerrycan" only for a member of the public to severely injure themselves.

* A minister's tale about eating a pasty at Leeds train station falls down under closer scrutiny. One imagines Tom Hollander's Cal Richards bellowing "Can someone tell me where's there's an actual pasty shop in the north of England?" across a busy ministry.

* The Government's blue sky-thinking communications director (Stewart Pearson) leaves government after suggesting the abolition of maternity leave.

* "Omnishambles" becomes common political parlance.