'Politics has been debased by its blurring line with entertainment'

Nigel Farage tucks into a 'Margar-teat-a', a pizza topped with a camel’s udder, sheep’s udder and cow's cow, on 'I'm a Celeb'

(Image credit: James Gourley/ITV/Shutterstock)

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Jemima Kelly in the Financial Times
The Scotsman's editorial board
Joe Ngai in the South China Morning Post
Christian Allaire in British Vogue

By The Week UK

published 21 November 2023

Politician or celebrity? Who knows any more?

Jemima Kelly in the Financial Times

"The lines between entertainment and politics have become increasingly blurry," says Jemima Kelly in the Financial Times. It's not just "I'm a Celebrity". "If you don’t fancy chewing a kangaroo's testicles live on telly, you can always dress up as a Spice Girl on 'Strictly'", or land a spot on GB News. As "the politician-to-Z-list-celeb path is becoming well-trodden in Britain, in America, it tends to work in the opposite direction". But in both countries, falling public confidence in government demonstrates "the extent to which politics has become debased, and utterly unserious".

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Patrick Vallance's "devastating" evidence to the Covid inquiry has highlighted the problem with accepting "lightweight credentials" for the office of prime minister, said The Scotsman's editorial board. During "the greatest crisis of modern times", the UK's leader was said to be "bamboozled" by scientific data. The lesson here is that voters "need to get smarter about those we elect". And that could be "good news" for Keir Starmer, whose "boring" tag may become an "asset if public opinion turns against political ringmasters and circus acts in place of government".

China "is wrestling with a severe demographic challenge", with an ageing population and record-low birth rate, writes Joe Ngai, chair of McKinsey & Company’s Greater China region, for the South China Morning Post. Young professionals face a "relentless grind", while over-35s are "shockingly perceived" as being too old and "less employable than their younger counterparts". The solution is for workers to "embrace lifelong learning", while "AI can be deployed, with care, to avoid widening inequalities". Otherwise, this "workforce paradox" risks becoming "one of the biggest misallocations of societal resources".

The Queen of Pop has "pulled off many different fashion eras" over her impressive career, says Christian Allaire in Vogue. Her "latest aesthetic off stage can only be described as, well, dirtbag-chic", with "plaid shirts, extremely baggy pants and even a cheeky Von Dutch trucker hat". On "an actual sleaze, the fashion’s a little on the nose", but on the "chameleonic singer", it "somehow reads as fresh". At 65, Madge is "still proving that she can reinvent herself yet again".

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