[Red Moon]

AT HOME WITH THE 10TH RATE
Christopher Hitchens

10 January 2006

THERE'S been a lot of pomposity and hypocrisy about George Galloway's decision to take a hand in the grand human wager known as Celebrity Big Brother.

I have read official Labour harrumphings about a betrayal of constituents in Bethnal Green and Bow. Which voter in Galloway's constituency was unaware he is, and always has been, a limelight-seeker and show-off?

George would like to be considered an addition to the gaiety of nations and the public stock of harmless pleasure.

It is quite right he should share billing with Maggot, with Sven Eriksson's ex, with Michael Barrymore and with "glamour girl" Jodie Marsh. He belongs in such an assembly of the talent-free and tenth-rate.

A public that voted for Galloway's blustering and evasive tirade before the US Senate as "favourite moment" of 2004 is entitled to have such people in its face.

Ah, but how fickle is the crowd which he seeks to please! Boos, jeers and unkind remarks have been his lot, ever since he took the Big Brother plunge.

I'm fascinated by those who are strangers to the idea of embarrassment: They have no idea of how they appear to others, or any concept of how others might feel.

That's often why they have so many different careers, simply moving on from one job or one office to another, never glancing back at the unbalanced books and unkept promises they left behind.

I notice that Galloway has said he'll donate his fee to a charity that helps hard-pressed Palestinians. Has anyone asked lately what happened to poor Mariam, the gravely sick Iraqi girl? The last I read, she was sicker than ever and her family in Baghdad asking to know what had happened to her once-generous "Big Brother".

And yet I have heard people saying his decision to make a fool of himself on Channel 4 is the worst thing he has ever done.

Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair

Source: The Mirror