Hancock: Where Vanity Meets Hubris

What was going through Matt Hancock’s mind, we’re reluctant to call it a brain, when he decided to sign up for I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here?

It is very hard to imagine, and you can’t even say he is just one of those delusionally out of touch Tories, since even most Tories thought, what on earth is he doing?

Media commentators piled in. Nick Curtis at the Evening Standard said making fun of Hancock was like shooting fish in a barrel. But added: “No, wait, it’s like shooting a fish that spends its entire life flopping around a target range, in an ill-advised poloneck jumper, shouting ‘shoot me, shoot me’.”

He wondered if the whole incident might be the point at which the UK combusts with embarrassment.

Marina Hyde at The Guardian noted the Hancock move was “appalling news for exotic animal genitalia”.

By general agreement, Hancock lives in a world where vanity meets hubris.

He presumably thought appearing on reality TV would be good for his personal brand.

Which makes you wonder who is giving him advice.

For our Find Out Now poll this week we asked: Is it right for a serving MP to spend several weeks on a celebrity reality show?

Would this be one of those things where it turned out the media was on its high-horse, but the general public actually didn’t care?

Would there be a large number of folk thinking that it’s only a laugh, and we could all do with one?

No. Almost no one thought that.

It is awfully hard to see what Hancock could do in the jungle to raise sympathy.

You can see the full results below.