Virtually Naked

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Rejoice, summer is here. This is not due to the sun/rain combo weather we have been having, or the fact that I my flip flops and summer dresses are ready to go for a  holiday this weekend. No, simply I have heard the Paul Oakenfold scored Big Brother theme tune. Whatever you think of the programme, that piece of music will forever be synonymous with this time of year.

Anyway, 14 volunteers have gone into a house in Elstree tonight to be prodded, pushed and perused by the shows producers and the general public one last time. I don’t mind the original principle of Big Brother; a live TV experiment that become a cult hit, and then a worldwide phenomenon. Tonight though the journey from where the programme has come from to where it has ended up , just over a decade later, became painfully clear.  In Big Brother 1, which I am JUST old enough to remember, there were people. Normal people. People who were prepared to cheat to win. People who were just decent guys from Liverpool in red shorts.

Tonight we had a ridiculous combination of failed divas, failed supermodels, eccentric priests and lesbian cliches. Yet none of them were interesting. They may turn out to be, and no doubt I will keep watching as that is the genius of the programme, but nobody’s story really gripped me. More than ever they just seemed like bad stereotypes, mixed together to create a cocktail of bitching and backstabbing.

Had I been involved in Big Brother, I would have cancelled it after the previous series and gone out after a decade with a bang. They have tried to spice it up this year by having a spooky fairground theme and, finally, an official mole (the 14th housemate selected) but it may not be enough to leave this cultural phenomenon with its reputation anywhere near in tact.

Despite being one of the oldest people there not chaperoning a child, I thoroughly enjoyed the Capital FM Summertime Ball. You don’t normally get t0 see such a collection of artists, and although I certainly didn’t think a lot of everyone (yeah you Justin Bieber), there were some great performances.
The best thing about events such as this is you tend to enjoy people you were unsure about. So yesterday I particularly enjoyed Kesha and Pixie Lott, who in the case of the former was a bit of an unknown, and in the case of the latter was excellent and engaging. Scouting for Girls were also great, as they bounded through their ‘greatest hits’ and a song “that depending on how old you are is either by a band called Journey or from a tv show called Glee”.

You also tend to get some nice surprises. I had been particularly looking forward to Dizzee Rascal and he didn’t disappoint. Coming on with ‘Dirtee Disco’ and following up with ‘Holiday’ he had 70,000 in the palm of his hand. Then he started ‘Dirtee Cash’. When he  got to the chorus suddenly a voice appeared from the wings, and there stood the rather lovely Florence (and the Machine) Welch in full flow.Check out the video to see just how good they were. By the time he had blazed through ‘Bonkers’ my performance of the afternoon was sealed.

For team X-Factor Cheryl Cole, Alexandra Burke and JLs all put in sterling performances-with the ladies sporting some rather fabulous stage attire. I can’t go without mentioning Justin Bieber. I am clearly too old to have been struck down by Bieber fever, but the shrieks that occurred every time his name was mentioned were frankly ridiculous.  Please go away and do your homework Justin.

Generally I thought the Prime Minister did well. He rightly trumped areas on which the Coalition agree and are making progress, and was honest about the areas on which the Liberal Democrats maintain their different opinion, for example the Human Rights Act and marriage tax allowance. It was also pleasing to see the Prime Minister and his deputy not hidden behind reams of notes and smug smiles. No sign of Ed Balls either, a marked improvement. I was delighted that proposals on an elected House of Lords and the Pupil Premium, key Liberal Democrat pledges, appeared so prominently. Let us hope that this is a sign that we are really getting our voice heard in Government.
Harriet Harman, now thankfully speaking from the opposition benches, put in a fairly weak performance after receiving praise for her contribution to the Queens speech debate. A very corney ‘on this, Nick agrees with me’ may have made the troops feel better, but didt little to boost her credibility. Her questions were not particularly probing either. It is obvious her only intention is to show perceived rifts within the Government. It will be interesting to see whether she remains Deputy Leader after the the Leadership election as I think Nick Clegg may have quite a good time against her during Deputy Prime Ministers Questions.

So a win for the Government today, and another test just about passed. Let us hope the end of ya-boo politics remains as well.

I consider Davis Laws an excellent, exceptionally intelligent, hard working MP and minister. Sadly, he clearly was so uncomfortable in his own skin that he broke some rules to cover himself. Let’s never forget that Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper cynically and deliberately made the same arrangement, with only financial gain in mind. They kept their front bench jobs.

Ironically, by making the arrangement he did, David Laws claimed less money than he could have and saved the tax payer money. I have said that David Laws resigned to maintain his integrity and have been mocked, mainly by Labour members/tweeters. He is without doubt a man of integrity as the motivation for this arrangement was not financial gain or greed but was a matter of personal privacy. For Labour members, the Telegraph, and assorted Coalition bashers question David Law’s integrity they is so very misguided. If he didn’t feel able to come out, that is his own personal choice and a stark reminder that even in these supposedly enlightened times coming out as a gay person is incredibly difficult and scary.

As for tonights Danny Alexander debacle I don’t know what to say…I havn’t had a chance to look into the intricacies so I won’t comment  in too much depth, but the case against Danny Alexander  at the moment seems to be very weak. It simply illustrates that this ring wing newspaper is determined to impose its agenda on the Coalition government to punish Cameron for working and compromising with the Liberal Democrats.
Personally, I was never massively exercised by the expenses scandal in the first place. Yes I thought many of the actions of MPs were entirely unacceptable, that the system needed serious reform, and I am pleased that a Government involving Liberal Democrats has firmly said they put these reforms into place. However, I don’t find politicians talking about themselves all that interesting. These stories are again different, not because they involved Lib Dems (although that is a novelty in the expenses scandal,) but because they have clearly been gleefully sat on, like time bombs primed to be let off to cause most damage. Our media should absolutely hold politicians to account, but they do no set the agenda. By behaving like this the Telegraph simply discredits itself and other newspapers. Next time there is an important story, nobody will be interested.

This ‘trial by Telegraph’ needs to end so that the Coalition can fix the expenses system, fix the economy  and be held to account, not ransom, by the media.