THERE IS NOW speculation that L'Enfant
terrible of right-on,
politically correct comedy, is considering to challenge for London Mayor after
what he may consider to have been a bravura performance on Newsnight earlier in
the week – I speak of course, of Russell Brand.
A self
confessed economic ignoramus, but who also says he likes the sound of
'collectives', which he also has little knowledge of: Brand has also not denied
(through his spokesman) his intent to stand for London Mayor after Boris
Johnson. Brand reminds me of the erratic and dysfunctional and paranoid hippy
Neil in the BBC 1980s sit-com The Young Ones. At least Neil had a pretext for
his behaviour; after all, his brain had been addled by wacky-backy, and
therefore excuses could be made.
But
Brand has no such excuse for his erratic behaviour, other than that he is about
to publish a thesaurus decorated tomb. If all of the fuss and bother surrounding
his Newsnight interview was part of such
a promotion, then the rumour that this muttonhead seeks elevation to our
capitals most prestigious office must also be taken with a mouthful of salt.
The
man is ignorant. He has drip-fed the gullible in the media with outrageously
uninformed views and an ill-mannered expression of them. He has been promoting
his book, and the media have been snared into helping him. The controversial Newsnight
interview was an attempt by the BBC to keep its programme on the air; and if
helping Brand promote his latest contribution to Western literary endeavour served
their purpose, then so be it. Both the BBC and Brand are feeding of the other.
Newsnight,
because it badly needs headlines to keep the programme afloat, and Brand who,
after his failure to take on in America, needs to get all the publicity he can
from his latest literary offering this side of the pond – ghost written, of
course, by Roget.
Russell
Brand is part of the problem of the over-weaning might of celebrity culture
within Western society. He is a dork, but whatever slips from his illiterate
mouth is treated as being newsworthy because he has gained the title of being a
celebrity. I do not blame him, but those in the newspaper media who take him seriously enough to help add
copies to their daily sales by publicising the Left's new Dave Spart.
He
is a chump of the second order who, in association with chumps of the first
…the media; has managed to promote himself through his vicarious and outrageous behaviour into
earning another half a million or so.
BRAND'S BOOK SIGNINGS will be financially enriched
by his behaviour. The book will not make the top of the Sunday Times best seller list in
any event, but it will have given him a generous publisher's fee before
publication, and whatever the shortfall in sales, Brand will still be left in
pocket. After all, a book with the title Revolution
will appeal to the BBC, Channel Four, and the Guardianista everywhere.
I
am almost warming to this politically and commercially savvy reprobate. He is a
bogus Lefty, who seeks wealth for himself, but needs the Leftwing brand to
guarantee his pension. I would love him to stand for the London Mayoral office;
and what is more, I would like him to win. London will then have as its Mayor,
a court jester instead of a king. A jester in control of the court itself, with
imbecilic, and self-admitted ignorance of economics and therefore any competence
in economics.
It matters little to Brand that, if he puts his
name forward for the race to become the Mayor of London, such an ambition would
run contrary to his belief in not voting. Like any other politician, he can
come up with the appropriate excuse, to encourage his most devoted to vote for
him in such a contest. Brand, in other words will earn the opprobrium –
hypocrite; but like all the politicians he so despises, his skin is thick
enough, and his kerching moment loud enough to rejoice in the opprobrium of the
right-wing press.
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