Obviously, the topic of the moment is Theresa ‘not-for-turning’ May. But I’m not going to write about that. I haven’t been dwelling on it. To be honest (always am) I’m a bit bored with Brexit now. I feel helpless and fatalistic about it and as far as I can tell (maybe not far) the BBC hasn’t performed much more one-sidedly over unfolding Brexit news than other news organs have. Let’s see how the Sunday programmes handle it.
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| cruelty |
Instead, I’m going to write about something trivial and largely unconnected with the Beeb. I can’t remember where I came across it - perhaps below-the-line on Biased-BBC - but it concerned one of the Deborahs. I always get my Deborahs confused. There’s Deborah Orr, a Guardian columnist with whom I fundamentally disagree about everything, particularly her choice of husband, albeit a relationship that seems to be unravelling, and the other one who writes in The Times. Orr and Ross; the similarities in those letter sequences add to the confusion. Deborah Ross is just one of a cavalry of amusing lady columnists whose multifarious and light-hearted pieces entertain even if they don’t especially inform or educate.
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| chuffed |
What has she gone and done now? Well, she’s written a vituperative piece about Katie Hopkins, and caused a small below-the-line uproar.
What’s disappointing is that someone like Deborah Ross should choose such an easy target. Katie Hopkins sets out to stir shit, so why bother berating her for that? That’s her MO. However, the excessive schadenfreude in Ross's uncharacteristic rant is unbecoming and also a bit stinky.
I’d say to Deborah, so I would (if I were Irish) “now that Hopkins has suffered the financial consequences of her outspokenness and stubbornness, your satisfaction and your all-out gloating negates any righteousness you might feel from Katie Hopkins ‘getting her just deserts’. “
The thing is, that Katie Hopkins is (marginally) my kinda gal. She says stuff that some of us ‘think’, at fleeting moments, in the privacy of our own heads. Rude thoughts; who doesn’t have them?
Also, Jack Monroe is insufferable, although she seems to have mellowed with the hairstyle, and as for Laurie Penny with her squeaky opinions, give me Katie Hopkins any day of the week.
Hopkins’s combative style and radical fundamentals are what makes her stand out. That’s it. She’s not a very good interviewer, especially with someone she agrees with. She needs an argument to raise her above the mediocre. I watched her ‘soft’ interview with Anne Marie Waters and it struck me she would never have got very far, career-wise, without being outrageous and obnoxious.
Deborah Ross even manages a passing swipe at Tommy Robinson. Good grief, say something original. That’s your job.
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If I hadn’t already binge-watched it, I’d have been tuning in to BBC One to see “Killing Eve” last night. I thought the adaptation was terrific and Jodie Comer’s performance as an engaging, nay, loveable murderous psychopath was mesmerising. I loved Sandra Oh, (great name) with those eyebrows that constantly shot up in consternation like the apex of a steeply pitched roof. For once I agree with Hugo Rifkind.
