the new two ronnies
Regular readers will already know that I hold truck with neither of today’s political comedians, Nigel Farage and Russell Brand, but I can’t deny it was with unabashed delight and expectation that I awaited last week’s combative Question Time, where the two had obviously been selected for maximum viewing figures and maximum volatility.
As it turned out neither really shone in any new light and both looked suspiciously lightweight in terms of actual economic argument, somewhat surprisingly allowing Times’ journalist Camilla Cavendish to appear as the voice of reason! Yes, the ‘pound-shop Enoch Powell’ jibe was both funny and, with recent revelations hitting the press, barbed but I was surprised at the amount of times that Brand, when pushed for any depth or clarity to his campaigning, reverted to the ‘leave me alone, I’m only a comedian’ claim.
However, irrespective of their relative uninspiring performances, what they both share is that they’re trouble for the current incumbents of today’s political ‘status quo’ system, which in itself may not be a bad thing. Brand with his nine million plus twitter followers has a reach that virtually all MPs would die for, or at least lie for, and his glib pronouncements obviously appeal to the angry, under-utilised and disenchanted youth. Farage speaks to the older but equally narked, disenfranchised and politically isolated. With Farage claiming immigration caused the ‘appointment delaying’ M4 congestion and Brand believing that a one-off bankers’ tax would signal an end to the austerity age, Thursday evening highlighted the weaknesses in both their armouries. Neither has answers to the pickle we find ourselves in but they are both more similar to the other than they’d care to admit. It’s goodnight from me, and it’s goodnight from him.
