Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Shared opinion | 4 October 2008

Was I wrong to turn down my chance to star on Tory TV?

issue 04 October 2008

‘Would you be interested,’ said the startlingly eager girl at the Birmingham conference centre, ‘in recording a message in the Conservative Video Box?’

God, I was pleased about that. There I was, neither a blond female, nor a read- ily identifiable member of an ethnic minority, and still the flunky reckoned I was the kind of person they wanted on film. It must have been the new suit. It’s grey, and sharp as daggers. You know. The kind of suit you might wear if you are an aspiring young Tory, and Central Office puts you up for a photoshoot in Tatler, which they will then sneeringly disown. That kind of suit. Plus, I shaved off my beard the other week, before I went to the Labour party conference. It’s not flattering at all when the flunkies think you are Labour. Not any more.

‘No,’ I said, all the same.

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