George Galloway: a step too far.
Just what is George Galloway hoping to achieve or gain by going on Celebrity Big Brother? You might recall that last year he missed a vote on which he could have helped defeat the government, as he was at the time taking part in another piece of egotism, an audience with himself. This time though even he seems to have gone too far.
To start with, he's abandoned his constituents yet again, this time for possibly 3 weeks. He's already one of the lowest-attending members of the house of parliament, thanks both to his laziness, audience with shows and his on-going battle with the US Senate. Secondly, the whole point of going on to a programme such as Celebrity Big Brother is to boost a flagging career or to convince the public that you're even more of an attention whore than they previously thought you were. Galloway's career isn't flagging, and there's few people who don't think him of as little less than a self-promoting vain man. Thirdly, what better way for others to expose your politics or at least let them try to than to give them the opportunity 24 hours a day? Fourthly, and let's not be snobbish here, but he hasn't he exactly gone into the house with any intellectual heavyweights. Big Brother must be thrilled to have got him; they're likely to use him as this year's opposite of John McCririck, or rather, make him look like him. Galloway will be able to discuss politics with Faria Alam, whose only claim to fame is to have slept with at least 2 directors of the FA, and also with Sven-Goran Eriksson. Should he feel so inclined he can discuss Iraq with the slapper's slapper, Jodie Marsh. Or maybe he'll get into discussion about the dissolution of the USSR with Michael Barrymore, and how it relates to how his own career fell apart.
There's no doubting that Galloway is an intelligent man, charismatic, and a great orator. But with those skills he also falls victim to the usual traits which those men also have: vanity and arrogance. He can be incredibly entertaining, as evidenced by his spat with Christopher Hitchens, but it shouldn't be at the expense of letting down those who he represents, and who in effect pay his wages. By going on Big Brother he seems to have let his "fame" go right to his head. He isn't going to convince anyone that Blair is a war criminal or that war in Iraq was wrong and illegal by doing so, nor is he going to clear his name over the oil for food scandal. The only reason I can come up with for his appearance is that he has lost touch with those who voted him into office, the poor and ethnic minorities of Bethnal Green and Bow, and that is a sad state of affairs.
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Cool guestbook, interesting information... Keep it UP
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Sunday, October 08, 2006 5:28:00 PM