January 6, 2006


Out of touch with reality

SO, THE controversial Respect Party MP George Galloway is one of the 'celebrities' to enter the Big Brother house.

Mr Galloway is an MP, and is paid handsomely to fulfill the responsibility of representing his constituents - even those who did not vote for him - in Parliament.

The House of Commons may not be sitting this week, but many of its 630 elected members are already back at work after the Christmas and New Year break, getting ready for formal debates to resume in less than 100 hours from now.

Mr Galloway may think that taking part in Big Brother is helping him to keep in touch with one aspect of popular culture, but it's hard not to believe that being an MP should be his first responsibility - if that's not the same as his first duty.

Simply put, he should be spending his time keeping in touch with what's happening in the wider world so that he can represent his constituents most effectively, not incarcerated and isolated in a television production complex in Hertfordshire.

Mr Galloway, who has a reputation for being forthright, was celebrated in 2005 for rescuing the word 'popinjay' from obscurity during exchanges with journalist Christopher Hitchens in Washington DC over the Iraq conflict.

The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow may, with his more mature house-mates, actress Rula Lenska, entertainer Michael Barrymore and former US basketball player Dennis Rodman, provide some interest in a show which otherwise seems well-past its 'best before' date.

Another 'celebrity' is a woman with a cantilevered brassiere that, from a brief glance at her horizontal cleavage, looks more of a tribute to engineering than to corsetry.

This woman's identity, like those of the house's other occupants, remains a mystery that there seems little point in trying to solve.