Russell Brand as future Mayor of London Noooooooooooo !

I couldn't really be bothered with Russell Brand and his one and only pair of scuffed cowboy boots (can't help but notice he seems to permanently be wearing them) one way or another because he is so ubiquitous and he doesn't seem to know what his message is, jumps all over the place. But I came across this article and read it thought it was good:

theconversation.com/if-russell-brand-has-a-thesis-its-time-for-his-viva-33607

Haha! This is hilarious.

All I can say is that he makes me cringe.

That
Most definitely. It is difficult isn't it because the message is a valuable one but it ends up being lost when rich famous powerful folk effectively are saying 'do what we say, not what we do'. Feels like we are doing the work for them- the boring bit of the work, that is.

Not to mention a few inconvenient truths about Al Gore, eh millers?

Yes Emma Thompson and her buying up of land around Heathrow to stop expansion then endlessly bangs on about the environment and plane travel whilst telling us about the weddings in Mozambique she flies to and the round the world trips she wants to take her daughter on .

Clearly she has a special plane that runs on unicorns breath or is it that us plebs should stop using air travel so the famous can continue to do so without guilt or responsibility?

Same with Vivienne Westwood who went on to Breakfast BBC to talk about environmentalism then in the next breath told us she was only there because the airline cancelled her flight to Austria where she was due to attend a one day retreat- clearly an unavoidably valuable journey?)

I think most 'celebrity' environmental campaigners are hypocrites as they all have lots of houses and use private jets [Bono and Sting spring to mind].

I understand that he gained his notoriety through being a notable comedian. Perhaps he should have stayed with that.

Russell Brand drives around London and LA in a huge black range rover and flies via private jet. He is a self declared environmental campaigner and he is a hypocritical joke.

That is enough for me to rule him out as having any credibility.

Sunseeker I agree -

That interview with him in (yet again) The Guardian books this weekend where he made irritatingly stupid jokes about his latest venture into kids books and was irreverent about the paedophilic subtext of the subject (Pied Piper of Hamelin) was vile.

Perhaps people are confused by my suggesting that intelligent people like him can (and often do) say and do stupid things.

It's his political ideology that I object to. I'd object to it if I thought him unintelligent as well. Somehow it seems worse in an intelligent person, as if some key reasoning power got missed out of his intelligence.

Eloethan I do agree with you.

RB may be objectionable in a number of ways but he is definitely intelligent.

It would be interesting if someone would read an article of his and then point out where it is stupid and deserving of ridicule.

Not, of course, counting objection to his political ideology which is definitely too extreme for some people.

Yes, janea, exactly.

RB is a poser is why, eloethan. Even so, I think your remark is a little OTT. No-one has accused him of a serious crime (or any crime), only of self-obsessed stupidity (in spite of supposedly being a clever dude), which only deserves (and gets) ridicule.

Well, Eloethan, no one claimed that 50 Shades of Grey was a work of literature, did they.
And celebrity chefs aren't advocating revolution.
Perhaps that's the difference.

Wow! what has Russell Brand done to get such a reaction? He's written a book. Crikey anyone would think he'd killed somebody.

In a nation where 50 Shades of Grey flew off the shelves and diet books, cookery books and autobiographies of "celebrities" sell particularly well, especially at Christmas, I'm not quite sure why people are so appalled at the lack of intellectual rigour in RB's book.

Agree with you Jen.

I find it's possible to substitute the name Farage for Brand in just about every place in that article, Janea.

Thanks for the link to Nick Cohen's article Bags.

Love this comment from Boccebelle (RB denounced Richard Dawkins as ' a menopausal proponent of atheistic tyranny'):

" 'Menopausal' is an insult now? Because women over fifty don't have enough shit to deal with, now a normal, healthy biological thing is going to be used as a put-down? Am I supposed to be ashamed of my age? Well, guess what? I'm not. Go, fuck yourself Brand, you pathetic little twerp."


This article argues that it's time for Russell Brand's ideas to be subjected to proper scrutiny by the media, instead of the easy ride he's had so far.

I think that he has shot himself in the foot with his book and exposed himself as an idiot! ( not to mention hypocrite etc) The young are not silly- they can be trusted to see through things and form opinions.

You're right anno.

Is he really worth all this discussion? Doesn't it mean that we are taking him at least half-way seriously?

In fact, I think he is quite dangerous, as he is a proponent of loony ideas but has quite a following amongst young people.

There are several more balanced reviews in the Guardian Panel section. That should be a first then!

Such a pity that he makes such a complete idiot of himself; now he wants to be taken seriously he will find it very difficult.

He reminds me of that turquoise chap who used to be a sports presenter - oh yes, David Icke.

Russell Brand doesn't claim to be an economist. Let's face it, most of these "experts" did not foresee the near collapse of the financial system and now seem perplexed that the current economic situation doesn't conform to their text book models. Some would also argue that they are complicit in maintaining a system that is unfit for purpose in that it only benefits a tiny proportion of the world's population.

Although some of Russell Brand's views seem outlandish, he is at least interested in the issues of injustice and inequality and perhaps he has encouraged young people to take more interest in what is happening in the world today.

It's interesting that most people who are rubbishing his ideas, have not read his book and are forming their opinions courtesy of the mainstream media. When I've read his book, I may also come to the conclusion that it's utter nonsense, but until I have I'll reserve judgment.

Russell Brand as mayor, perish the thought. That man is nothing but hot air.' and far too clever and full of his own importance for me to take anything he says seriously.