The rise and fall of UKIP’s other ‘star’
Though Twitter is now used by over 310 million people, it still strikes me as one of the most peculiar phenomena of the modern age, a magnet for the vain, the loopy, the over-opinionated and, perhaps above all, for those with too much time on their hands.
But, every now and then, it conveys a melancholy kind of poetry, shedding a sharp, bleak light on the life and thoughts of one of its users.
A few days ago, I was plodding my way through Lord Donoughue’s newly published political diaries of the Nineties. on Wednesday, September 4, 1996, he goes to a party at harrods thrown by Mohammed al Fayed ‘with wonderful food and lots of interesting people’.
one of these party-goers is Robert Kilroy-Silk, who, writes Donoughue, ‘is very open and boastful about the huge sums of money he earns from TV journalism’.
Kilroy-Silk! Whatever happened to him? It doesn’t seem so long ago that he was all over the place, the King of Daytime TV, prowling around his nervy studio audience with his microphone and his unearthly orange tan. Then he turned into a different kind of celebrity, becoming an outspoken nationalist, joining UKIP, becoming a UKIP MEP (pictured), challenging for the leadership of UKIP and resigning from UKIP, all within the space of nine months.
Ten days after leaving UKIP in 2005, he launched a breakaway party called Veritas, standing in that year’s general Election in the happily named constituency of Erewash.
he lost his deposit and, a couple of months later, resigned as leader of Veritas, causing some party members to call for him to be thrown out of his own party.
on 2008, he popped up on I’m A Celebrity ... get Me out of here! and was the first contestant to be voted out, losing to former children’s TV presenter Timmy Mallett and former Dollar singer David Van Day.
As far as I can ascertain, his last appearance on British television came in 2011, when he went on Loose Women, ‘to discuss his new career as a novelist’.
And then ... nothing. In my experience, people you think have disappeared are in fact on Twitter.
Sure enough, there he was, under ‘Robert Kilroy Silk @TheKilroySilk’, billing himself as ‘ Retired broadcaster, politician and opinion prompter. And you haven’t quite seen the back of me yet’.
This final boast proved inaccurate. his entire tweeting career was in fact unusually brief. his first tweet was dated 4 october 2011, his last 25 Apr 2012. Between those two dates, he posted 86 tweets, and attracted just 283 followers.
This figure compares unfavourably to, say, the 3.53m followers enjoyed by Joey Essex.
Kilroy-Silk’s first tweet was pretty standard: a tweet about the fact that he was tweeting: ‘Well, it had to happen sooner or later.’ his second, posted three hours later, reads: ‘What’s a hashtag? This is all very confusing.’ Then someone tweets him the solution, and he tweets back: ‘Ah, OK, thanks. Is it basically a bit like a postcode??’
By the second day, he has got into his stride. Someone has tweeted him to ask how long the Eu will last. ‘I think the Eu will be wiped off the face of the earth by 2014,’ he replies. he was never one for caution.
on the third day, Kilroy-Silk sets a pattern, combining his twin loves of food and politics. ‘Dinner of grilled chicken with pesto veg and a nice Viognier,’ he tweets, adding: ‘In the interests of balance UKIP should have been on Question Time.’
By october 8, it has become clear that, like many tweeters, he is at a bit of a loose end. ‘ Re- watched the new Star Trek film tonight, really quite good. Still getting to grips with how this Twitter business works.’ Is there a suggestion of boredom in his use of the word ‘re-watched’? on october 9, he experiences another technical blip, and starts losing his self- confidence. ‘ I’m really struggling with Twitter, it doesn’t make a great deal of sense to me. Must be my age.’
he takes a few days off, but bounces back at 11.27am on october 17. ‘ I’m taking a quick Twitter break from making spinach and feta parcels. hope you are all well wherever you are.’
Two minutes later, he tweets: ‘got the Michael McIntyre DVD on in the background. he is very funny and an excellent example of what I like to call “classic stand up”.’
OVER the next few days, he tweets about current affairs, while simultaneously updating us on his catering arrangements. ‘Colonel gaddafi has been killed. This can only be a good thing #hashtag gaddafi,’ he tweets on october 20.
Three minutes later, he tweets: ‘No UKIP on #bbcqt again tonight. Quel Surprise (What a surprise). I’m having fish for dinner.’
Kilroy- Silk’s tweets stretch to the sort of stark, aimless monologue you might more commonly expect to encounter in a play by Beckett or Pinter. Next week, I shall be be reviewing the final act of this bleak drama.