Thursday 11 September 2008

Robert Kilroy-Silk

Born in 1942, he seems pretty unlikely to contest next year's European Elections, especially since he certainly doesn't need the money. UKIP did itself no favours by making him a candidate at the behest of Max Clifford, and he did himself no favours by having Max Clifford approach them.

But is he really all that bad? I can't help feeling that the vitriol directed towards him was because he was an old-school right-wing Labourite who had fought the Trots rather than (like so many Blairites) actually been one when it really mattered, and who had not (unlike the SDP) betrayed Gaitskellism over Europe. That, and he had a regional accent, he had gone to a grammar school, and he had a non-Oxbridge degree and previous academic career.

He's wrong about some things. And he's probably a difficult man, although I might be doing him a disservice. But he is also right about an awful lot. Which is why he is so hated.

4 comments:

  1. Don't forget that his ludicrous TV show (the main thing he's known for by the vast majority of people in this country), his permatan and the simple fact of his setting up his own political party (not, generally, a sign of a well-functioning ego) contributed significantly to the way he was perceived.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "his ludicrous TV show (the main thing he's known for by the vast majority of people in this country)"

    It wasn't to my taste, either. But it was benign compared to the likes of Jeremy Kyle. By means of Kilroy, the Beeb did its job and stopped commercial stations putting on the likes of Kyle, or at least dominating the market with them.

    "his permatan"

    Oh, raise the tone! That's never used against George Galloway, who has also set up two political parties (and someone does have to found political parties, you know) in recent years, and who, unlike RKS, has inexplicably surrounded himself with Trots and Islamists.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You don't have a permatan, David.

    ReplyDelete
  4. No, people lie out in the sun for days, or stick themselves under funny machines, or apply powerful chemicals to their skin, all to look like me or (even more so) my relatives on one side of my family.

    Robert Kilroy-Silk and George Galloway both do so, for a start.

    But they are both more right than wrong, often in the same ways (they have similar backgrounds), even so.

    ReplyDelete