Whatever anyone might think about the wisdom of the Speaker's wife taking part in Celebrity Big Brother, it has to be said that the intervention of rent-a-quote Labour MP Kate Hoey on the subject was extremely poorly-judged. She demanded that Sally Bercow hand a portion of her appearance fee to "the taxpayer" - but as I understand it Ms Bercow has already announced that she is donating her entire £100,000 fee to an autism charity.
Are autistic people the wrong kind of taxpayers in Kate Hoey's eyes?
There's been a lot said about Mrs Bercow's appearance on "Celebrity Big Brother".
ReplyDeleteMuch of it has been on the theme of the way that this will reflect on the House of Commons and the Speaker.
The way I see it, Mrs Bercow is not the Speaker of the House of Commons nor does she hold any paid, or unpaid public office, so, given that this is the 21st century and a woman is no longer considered chattel, what she does, within the law, is no concern of anyone except her, and those around her whom she wishes to involve.
Additionally to talk, as people have, about this bringing dishonour or disgrace to the House, is side-splittingly funny. The actual members of the House have done that over many years, braying like donkeys, remaining in the 19th century, behaving like little princes, and stealing tens if not hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money. Bercow, too, has made a laughing stock of himself with his ridiculous protestations against rowdiness, etc, talking like a nanny to spoilt upper class children, and demanding corridors be cleared for him and his procession.
I don't care for Sally Bercow; she sounds like a rather stupid woman. Her performances on programmes like "Have I Got News for You" have succeeded only in giving wittier people like Ian Hislop and Paul Merton to take the proverbial... but that's her business.
Neither do I find "Big Brother" entertaining. It is, in any case, well past its sell by date, and attracts only ZZZ list "celebrities".
Looking at the list of participants in this year's re-launched "5" version of the show, I doubt that many of them will be aware of her husband's job or indeed his placing (and therefore, ridiculously, hers) in the order of precedence for England, just under members of the royal family. I don't imagine that they will care much if they do know.
She will make a fool of herself, as will the rest of them ,and it will giver the Daily Mail something to purse its wrinkled old lips about.
But credit to the woman for giving her fee to charity, and discredit to Kate Hoey, for whom I do usually have some respect, for not having researched her subject.
"I doubt that many of them will be aware of her husband's job or indeed his placing"
ReplyDeleteJudging from the clip on Newsnight last night, Amy Childs reckons Ms Bercow is an MP and owns the Houses of Parliament!
It seems I was wrong about her donating her entire fee, though - her fee is £150,000, and only £100,000 is going to the autism charity. She's keeping £30,000 and the other £20,000 is going to her publicist Max Clifford. All the same, that's more generous than most 'celebrities' would be in that situation.
Ah, James. I'd never heard of her, but I looked her up to see if I could find out what it was she does. It appears that she is famous for having boobs ten times the size of her brain, and looking common.
ReplyDeleteCelebrity indeed!