Welcome to the age of sleb politics

14 August 2010

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Once, pop stars and actors were content with vast riches and public adulation. Now celebrities want to run countries. Rod Liddle despairs of the new world order in which Wyclef Jean wants to be President of Haiti and Bono is taken seriously

Live Aid was different; this was not witless slebs supporting politicians unconditionally, but witless slebs telling politicians, all politicians, that they had got things wrong, that they with their direct connection to the public knew much, much better. A few brave souls said so at the time, and now we know for a fact that Live Aid was more harmful to Ethiopia than helpful, and that the money raised was diverted into the wrong pockets — as it always is. And yet for the past 25 years both Bob Geldof and Bono have continued to be courted by politicians both here and in the USA, despite the fact that their simple prescription — more fokkin money to Africa now, and let’s write off all that debt — has been seen to be fatally flawed.

One supposes that it is the simplicities of the sleb argument which seem, if you’re thick as a block of tungsten, compelling; give ’em more money, that should do it. But since then the charities and supra-national institutions have leapt on board. If the fairly sentient Bob Geldof can do it, can galvanise the public, why not that minxy Geri Halliwell from the Spice Girls, who is totally unsentient but has sold a lot more records than Bob? Make her a UN ambassador, then. And after Geri, why not Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell and Mia Farrow? They don’t know very much about anything, but hell, who cares? They will capture the interest of the public and make the politicians sweat.

But they will also take the diamonds from a mass murderer or try to become the president of Haiti, because they know no better. They think they are entitled to everything. They think they can do anything, and they think they are right.

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Keith Clouston

August 14th, 2010 10:37am Report this comment

Dear Rod, in the 1990s I toured extensively in Europe as a musician working with a certain female world music singer. We ended up having a French top 20 hit in 1999, at which point said singer, whose personality was becoming increasingly 'diva'ish,not least because she was now sought after by the French press for her vacuous opinions on multiculturalism, the Middle East etc was approached to become a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN. We in her band found this hilarious as she had created nothing but ill-will in her own backing band and at the end of her most successful and lucrative tour half of us left. Our singer became a UN Goodwill Ambassador shortly afterwards.

Zomby

August 19th, 2010 10:49am Report this comment

Great article! Plenty more examples. Of all the appalling decisions made by the last government, the one that really sticks out was when, in 2009 and already deep in the broon stuff, they reckoned they should do their bit for businesses and said why don't we get that Suralan, he's a business sort of a bloke isn't he?, why don't we make him a tsar?

Wouldn't happen to the new lot of course, they sensibly went for that well known authority on public sector budgeting, Philip Green.

All credit to Blair, he did throw a party for his favourite slebs, but at least he didn't suggest they knew how to run the country.

Yam Yam

August 19th, 2010 12:43pm Report this comment

What? No mention of the original and the greatest 'sleb' politicians of them all - Eva Peron?

Oedipus Rex

August 19th, 2010 11:22pm Report this comment

Given that it seems some of these slebs involvement is also a means to maybe revive a flagging career with accompanying withdrawal from the limelight symptoms, we could 'play conspiracy theorist' and ask - Cui Bono? (If you get my point)

A. MacAulay

August 22nd, 2010 8:21am Report this comment

Do start one of your competitions in which pols and slebs are paired up like Sarkozy and Bruni. Like, say a Milliband, any one will do, married to Lilly Allen. Or Harperson and Brian Ferry. Could be satisfyingly macabre.

John Costello

August 22nd, 2010 10:41pm Report this comment

Ronald Reagan was not a B movie actor who had not been seen by the general public for 20 years before he was elected. Check out his career on IMDB.COM. In thye 1950s he had become President of the Screen Actor's
Guild, become employed as a spokesman for GE, and ws host and often star of GE Theater, a weekly TV seen by at least 1/3rd of America's TV viewing public every week. His prestige in Hollywood was enough to lure A-List movie stars to the anthology series (Check out the cast lists for the individual episodes on imdb) and was sufficiently politically formidable that the Kennedys brought anti-trust charges against GE to "suggest" the company take its very popular, very conservative spokesman off the air. Reagan's revenge was to go into politics, where he accomplished far more than either Jack or Bobby.