The Yahoos

Sawrey Gilpin, Gulliver reprimanded and silenced by his master when describing the horrors of war (1805). Photo credit: York Museums Trust.

When Swift painted our picture for us in Gulliver, His Travels,

We found it most amusing and laughed to beat the band.

Now some centuries on, we are Yahoos still

As vile as ever, if not more so, and all the Houyhnhnms are dead.

Swift, I think, would understand!