With the parliamentary houses still closed for the Christmas break, it was up to another house to open its doors this week for blogworld’s titillation. The rumours of Robert Kilroy-Silk entering Celebrity Big Brother brought the best out of some of the blogosphere’s top wags.
Guido Fawkes commented: “The producers are geniuses at creating a freakshow out of mentally deranged narcissists. No doubt he will flounce out and announce his intention to set up a rival ‘Big Kilroy’ house within days…”
Meanwhile Stephen Newton quipped: “Robert Kilroy Silk is no George Galloway, but it will be interesting to see whether his Celebrity Big Brother strategy is to share or to shaft.”
But on Big Brother’s big opening night it turned out neither Mr Kilroy-Silk nor the equally hotly-tipped Tommy Sheridan had taken-up the challenge (so far). Indeed, many political bloggers seemed aghast at the lack of any creditable excuse for tuning-in nightly.
But this was not to stop some. Chicken Yoghurt predicted Tony Blair would enter as a late contestant: “Blair wins the competition, and thus stays out of the clutches of the law for a whole month, by the simple expedient of giving a steady trickle of gossip about all the celebrities and popstars he’s holidayed with over the years.”
An ex-politician who would presumably want to steer well-clear of confinement is Jeffrey Archer, whose first flirt with television of the year, Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway, prompted him to write a post entitled “No begging letters please!”
Who’s in and who’s out was a question which arose earlier in the week when Migrationwatch announced the influx of migrant workers from Eastern Europe had bettered the UK economy by, on a daily average, only 4p per person.
Tim Worstall took a philosophical view on the findings: “A slight benefit to the native population and a great benefit to the immigrants. Everyone gains (on average of course). This is known as a Pareto improvement isn’t it? The world is a better place, the average condition of humanity has increased as a result of all this immigration. What’s not to like? Isn’t this what we’re all supposed to be after anyway?”
While Little Man in Toque pulled no punches: “I find the doctrine of multiculturalism intensely annoying but it’s not immigrants themselves – or even their alternative cultures and religions – that piss me off, it’s the net gain in population that is really doing the damage.
In news from America, Phil Dilks told how American bloggers are having a field day following a gaffe predicted by Clive Davis three weeks ago: “CNN managed to mix up a contender to be the next President of the USA with terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
“In a story on the whereabouts of Osama, CNN mistakenly ran the caption: ‘Where’s Obama?’ over a picture of the terrorist leader.”
Finally, Polly Toynbee must have breathed a sigh of relief as political bloggers bid a farewell to one of their own this week. Factchecking Pollyanna announced its closure on the last day of 2006: “After eight enjoyable months, I’m going to mothball this blog. This is not because Polly Toynbee has suddenly started using real facts that she understands – on the contrary, her sloppiness and inaccuracy continue unabated.
“No, rather it is because I want to do other things more than I want to do this.”
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