I Turned Down Celebrity Big Brother

As an opponent, Matthew Hancock irritated me more than most. He liked the limelight. He knew he was clever and was eager to show it. I remember the day he shelved the second part of the Leveson inquiry into press ethics - the critical bit that looked at the relationship between the cops and the tabloids. I felt that later in life he would regret the decision. It was my first thought when he was turned over by the Sun, too.

His slightly naive bumbler image is not fake, though. It’s who he is. For someone who is, well, such a Tory, he is peculiarly endearing. I ended up liking him. He won me over with his work ethic, candour and humour - a bit like how he has just won over millions of viewers of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. Fair play to him.

At the height of the phone hacking scandal, I was offered £140,000 to appear on Celebrity Big Brother. I’ve got George Galloway to thank for turning it down, but I’m glad that Matt Hancock took a risk and signed up for I’m a celebrity.

It was a reputational risk for him, and he took a media beating for appearing on the show. In the binary world of tabloid journalism, he was a gift. Conservative enemies and Labour opponents united in condemning his lack of gravity, dereliction of duty, and faux celebrity status. If they’d thought about it for more than the time it takes to draft a tweet, they would have realised that he’s done them all a favour.

Matt Hancock has shown that MPs are not one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. He’s helped all politicians, though most will not admit it. We are all flawed in our unique way.

Let’s chat on Substack?

Substack has just made its new Chat feature available on Android. I’ve tried Chat a couple of times before and I really like it. It’s a bit like somewhere between a WhatsApp group and public social network.

Now that it’s finally available to the non-iPhone users among us, I thought it could be fun to try hanging out on there more often.

If you’d like to join in, I’ll be posting a new discussion topic this evening (Saturday December 3rd, UK time):

What’s the best book you have read this year?

I’d love your recommendations and tips for books old and new. Rather selfishly, I need all the help I can get with Christmas gift ideas, but I hope this will be useful for you too. I’ll compile the suggestions into a list and share it in next week’s newsletter.

You’ll need to download the Substack app to join in, and you’ll find some instructions on how to get started here. Once the discussion is live you’ll get an email inviting you to join in.

I’ll be dipping in and out of the discussion over the weekend, so look forward to seeing you on there.

Recommended reading & more?

If you’d like to read more from me including things to read, watch and listen to this week - head over to Substack. My weekly PoP Club newsletter covers health, politics and anything else I’ve found interesting each week! It’s free to read, subscribe on Substack and you will receive it in your inbox every week. My username on there is TomWatsonOfficial - here’s the link.