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A quick brief on Matt Hancock. Hancock was the UK government’s health secretary during the pandemic, famous for awarding tight contracts to friends of the conservative Tory party for items like PPE, pushing policies linked to thousands of deaths, and generally appearing to be a complete shit-eater. on television.
But that doesn’t cover his infamy. Hancock cemented his place in history in the summer of 2021, when CCTV footage was leaked of him enjoying an extramarital make-out session with one of his assistants, a video that proved he had broken his own social-distancing guidelines and encouraged people to is UK wonders if it was possible to die of shivering. He has the energy of a dodgy uncle that makes you wonder if changing place settings at a wedding is bad, so you don’t have to sit next to him to hear how his foray into a classic car collection has given him a new one. Lease of life after their divorce. Those with a desperate need to be liked will radiate from him like heat, even though he will be cold and clammy to the touch.
And now, a little more than a year later, people in the UK have seen this man—one of the most despised of our countrymen—eating the genitalia of exotic animals, covered in barbecue sauce and crawling through pits alive. Snakes and spiders.
I’m a celebrity… Get me out of here! is a reality show that had a short-lived US version in the mid-2000s, but here in the UK, the program has been going strong for the past 20 years. It’s hosted by two of our leading TV personalities, Ant and Dec, a lovable pair of Newcastle lads whose bond is so strong they’ve lived next door to each other for over two decades. Each year, about a dozen B-to-C-list celebrities are chosen to live together in the Australian jungle, undertaking notoriously stomach-turning tasks to win privileges and ultimately hope to be crowned king or queen of the jungle by the public. Vote
Hancock was a sitting MP whose announcement that he would leave his duties to appear on reality TV on the other side of the world led to his expulsion from the Tory party and dismay among the general public. Yes, there is a certain amount of schadenfreude in watching the man who oversaw health policy that resulted in thousands of unnecessary deaths in the UK go through a camel’s anus. But it is all so, so dishonest. This bad situation, and the ensuing national uproar, had a suitably silly ending on Monday night, as Hancock came third in the show’s finale, behind the former footballer and soap-opera actor. He will not be anyone’s king.
Why did he do this? Why do politicians often degrade themselves in this way? A friend recently told me that politics in the UK is the lowest form of show business, which seems right. There’s a strange pipeline from somewhat disgraced member of parliament to reality television show star, which seems to work the other way around most of America. Perhaps the most famous example is George Galloway, the one-time Labor MP who turned the nation’s stomachs by pretending to be a cat and snatching the “milk” from an actress’ hand. Celebrity Big Brother In 2003, a clip of which is widely available but I cannot in good conscience recommend that you watch.
Hancock’s justification for appearing on the show was that he wanted people to “realize” him. Also, it took him weeks to promote his dyslexia-awareness campaign, which he even mentioned once on the show. But it’s not clear why anyone should care who the “real” one is. Why do politicians think their personalities are relevant beyond their ability, clearly lacking in Hancock’s case, to do their jobs? Why is there no separation between a life in the spotlight as a public servant and an entertainer?
More than anything, his appearance on the program shows an unmistakable slippage between the role of public official and celebrity. Many politicians see politics not as a means by which they can improve the lives of the people they represent, but as a stepping stone on the road to personal fame. And as long as politicians attract that kind of attention — Hancock did better than expected on the show, and finished uncomfortably high in the public vote — we’ll see them discrediting themselves on television. Because as much as we all hate this attempt at prestige laundering, millions tune in night after night. And ultimately, it’s the ratings that matter
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