I was thinking lately of Robert Kilroy-Silk. For younger readers, and people who were never students or unemployed, a quick refresher course may be needed.
From 1986 to 2004 Kilroy-Silk was the presenter of a BBC daytime television programme called Kilroy. It had something of a cult following because of its unintentional hilarity. The live audience was carefully ring-mastered by Kilroy-Silk, who wandered around the studio with a microphone asking people what they thought about various ‘ishoos’ of the day. For some of us the main entertainment came from the fact that there was never quite enough room on the audience banquettes and so we watched for those moments when Kilroy-Silk would ask the opinion of an audience member and then inadvertently sit on them.
Kilroy-Silk’s career on the BBC came to an end at the beginning of 2004 when he used a Sunday newspaper column to express views on Arabs, whom he described as including ‘limb amputators’ and ‘women repressors’. The media and political class agreed as one that there was absolutely no excuse or justification for such comments. The BBC took Kilroy off the air and the man himself needed a new berth.
So he joined Ukip and was swiftly elected to the European parliament. His time in Ukip turned out to be short-lived, because he soon told an interviewer that he would like to lead the party – which was where he made his bloomer. Political parties – especially newish ones – tend not to appreciate people saying they would like to lead them. After less than a year Kilroy-Silk announced that he was leaving Ukip and set up a political party of his own called Veritas.
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