Stars who fail to shine as things get serious
EYES wide, hair artfully dishevelled and with the occasional finger snap for emphasis, Charlotte Church explained why she would be more than happy to pay tax at 70 per cent. ‘That would be totally fine,’ she said earnestly. ‘For better infrastructure and public services and more of a Scandinavian model, which I see as far more progressive than the way we are, I would be absolutely fine with that.’
And lo, Saint Charlotte of Church did come down from upon high and did bestow upon us much meaningless twaddle.
I mean, it’s great that she’s absolutely fine with it all (phew, what a relief!) but I’m not sure her words carry quite as much weight as she thinks they do. David Cameron, I suspect, felt the same. The pair met recently but La Church has poured cold water on the encounter, declaring: ‘He was so dismissive… it really irked me.’
How dare he! Doesn’t he know that Charlotte Church is a celebrity drinker of Cheeky Vimtos? Is he unaware that she once hosted a chat show whose theme tune featured Church singing ‘this is my lovely theme tune, it goes on and on’? Surely all that qualifies her to have the ear of the Prime Minister on any political issue she is currently worked up over and ill-informed about?
I’m sure Miss Church’s heart is in the right place but I also think that being in the public eye since she was a child has given her a slightly skewed view on her own self-importance.
‘End austerity now,’ she proclaims in the sort of covers-all-bases epithet that sounds good but means little.
In fact she sounds a bit like Mhairi Black MP, the 20-year-old SNP politician who says something similar every time she opens her mouth – the difference being that at least Black was motivated enough to get off her backside and run for Parliament, something I can’t quite see Miss Church getting round to.
This is, after all, a woman who voted Labour at the General Election but now says she supports the Greens. Well, I guess she’s had, like, almost a month to think about it all.
There was a lot of this stuff in Scotl and during the referendum. You couldn’t move for Proclaimers or exRiver City stars or – heaven forfend – a Krankie leaping towards the nearest microphone in order to declare their oh-so-important political view.
Some took it further, with the likes of Alan Cumming becoming a vocal activist for the Yes campaign – until a Broadway show clashed with the referendum date and he found out he couldn’t vote. Oops.
I’m not saying celebrities shouldn’t have opinions – of course they should. And I don’t have an issue with people who are personally wealthy speaking out about government spending cuts, as some took Church to task over before the election.
What I do object to is the deification of minor celebrities within political movements. Their voices are enormous megaphones that are f requently ill-informed about the issues. They distract, and make a lot of noise, and ultimately do very little other than create free publicity for themselves.
And while celebrities dominate the agenda, those with the power to make real changes find themselves completely drowned out.