KILROY WAS THERE....

Someone ( it may even have been the man himself) once said of Robert Kilroy Silk that he was too handsome ever to have been the Leader of the Labour Party. Close observers of his most recent TV antics might wager there were more valid reasons why he never made it to the top flight of Labour politics.

I must make it clear that I'm not a regular fan of I'm A Celebrity......but the other night I was too knackered to be bothered switching it off and got sucked into its grisly habitat.

At pushing 70, RKS clearly still thinks he is king of the jungle. Vanity reeks from every pore - yet this is a man so stupid he managed to get the Chancellor's name wrong. Alisdair Diamond, anyone ?

Fortunately, the Great British Public has booted him out .Which must have been a major blow to this man's oversized ego. Someone else said all political careers end in failure. His has ended in the ignominy of being first man out of a show which makes Celebrity Big Brother look like the Brain's Trust.

THE MEDIA IS NOT THE MESSAGE.,....

Is Jonathan Ross worth £6million a year of public money? In a word, no. Since the early 1980s. when he emerged bequiffed and precocious with his first TV chat show , I have always thought him to be over-rated and under-talented. But maybe that's just me. Maybe there are millions of you out there who really think he is worth the equivalent of about 600 jobs at the BBC. But for what, exactly?

He says "fuck" a lot but that's neither funny nor clever. He takes the p*** ( one four-letter word is enough) out of idiots like Jordan and Peter Andre What exactly is he FOR??? Tonight, the BBC's Director-General actually tried to justify his salary by comparing him to Morecambe and Wise. Sorry, no comparison.

In the 1970's , about 28million people used to watch Eric and Ernie.It was a different TV age. They probably still got paid too much money but I'd forgive Eric Morecambe anything because he was a comic genius ...... At the risk of sounding like an old git today's TV "stars" are jumped-up nobodies who are, simply, obscenely overpaid for what they do. Ant and Dec, Simon Cowell, Jade Goody, Chantelle, the long list of the talentless there to foster our no-culture culture is deeply depressing. Meanwhile, journalists' jobs are to be axed, decent programmes will be savaged. But no doubt Brucie will be dancing and prancing still - at the taxpayers' expense. And don't get me started on Ant and Dec's mechanical pig. I didn't even know of its existence until about 20 minutes ago. Laughing all the way to the bank, encouraged by the wilful refusal of our media barons to appeal to anything other than the lowest common denominator, these " celebrities" are an utter waste of space. And not worth making anyone redundant for.

SECTARIAN BEHAVIOUR

It's sad to see the ultra-left reverting to type and rubbishing socialists within the Labour Party. In a spirit of comradeship, I made sure to invite individuals from outside the Party to the meeting I organised in Hebden Bridge. Apologies to the good comrades who were there from SWP and RESPECT but I must comment on a nasty little piece written by Dave Isaacson, who is the local powerhouse of ultra-left Weekly Worker.
The report is up on their website and I have just written a reply which I hope they will publish in the interests of fairness . Dave describes the event as "shambolic" , a view he's entitled to. But I take great exception to his remarks about me. As anyone who knows me will testify, I am no friend of New Labour. But in a discussion exchange on media interviews, I said there was no point just always being negative to the TV cameras but that sometimes one should pose as a "critical friend." of the leadership It's called strategy, Dave. Otherwise they just cut you off and you don't get ANY criticisms in.
I also went on to say quite clearly that as socialists we had to continue fighitng for socialist ideas within the Party, try and build the LRC but also work with other campaigns outside. No mention of that because it doesn't suit the Weekly Worker agenda.
Dave also badly misrepresents what Linda Riordan had to say, twists John McDonnell's words, implies he's given up on the Labour Party and makes it generally plain he basically has no time for the Labour Left . Well I don't have much time for people who are invited to attend and have their say in a spirit of friendship and then do hatchet jobs on decent socialists. If you wanted a slick PR event, dave, you should have gone to Labour Party Conference. And, by the way, how many members/readers does Weekly Worker have ???????

AIRBRUSHING HISTORY......

Laughed out loud at the row over the unctuous Culture Minister James Purnell apparently airbrushing himself into a photocall when he hadn't, er, turned up. Thought the age of spin was over.......