Goodbye Nadine Dorries, hello Louise Mensch

Let me salute Nadine Dorries’s principled ambition to bring I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here to a wider audience. For too long this edifying documentary series, which sheds light on the concerns of real voters, has been closed to Westminster’s lumpen commentariat; but no more: by inviting Nadine on the show, ITV has signalled its intention to stop treating MPs, lobbyists and political hacks as if they don’t exist. We do exist and we’ll be following our plucky heroine as she meets the challenges of the rainforest. We’ll be voting as well. (Many times, of course: fixing polls is one of our specialities.)

Ms Dorries’ career is being closely monitored by her homesick former colleague Louise Mensch, who has taken time out from cheerleading for Mitt Romney and writing for the Sun to tweet obsessively about the jungle-bound Tory matron. ‘Just imagining the scene in the whips’ office if I said I wanted to skip Parliament for weeks to go on a celebrity TV show.