NOT a week goes by without another celebrity lecturing us all about politics.
Last week it was the turn of Hollywood actor Benedict Cumberbatch.
Known for once telling everyone to stay in the EU, he has since become an eco-warrior and joined the middle-class moaners, who call themselves Extinction Rebellion for their London protests. Cumberbatch was photographed speaking to them for a “good couple of hours”, which — to be fair to him — must have been hard given how little they shower.
Never mind that these individuals have brought London to a standstill, draining away precious police resources and destroying the incomes of low paid restaurant and shop staff trying to get to work.
It’s not only environmentalism, of course, that celebs are obsessed with.
#MeToo is another of their favourite areas, and you can look forward to more coverage on this as it is the movement’s two-year anniversary.
Actress Rosanna Arquette, an advocate of #MeToo, warned that there are likely to be more stories about “powerful men”. Goody!
Identity is also a big talking point. Take British singer Sam Smith, who wants to be known as “they” having come out as non-binary. This story hogged the airwaves as if the most important cause of all time.
The problem with celebrities discussing politics isn’t only that it’s often insanely patronising, but that they only address an extremely limited range of issues — mainly environmentalism, feminism and how terrible Donald Trump and/or Boris Johnson are.
Politics is like a religion to them, with a set range of commandments, such as: “thou shalt not be privileged. Thou shalt not put hand on an actress’s knee.” Their sermons reveal something about themselves, which is how ignorant they are of the other huge issues affecting people’s lives.
Take the housing crisis. Frequently, celebrities warn us that climate change will steal our children’s futures. But a lot of people my own age can’t even afford to have babies, as we live in overpriced rabbit hutches.
What about our futures, huh? The ones that were brushed over by the political elite?
When the Queen relayed the Government’s political agenda, what was astonishing was that it had nothing about housing in it — a national emergency — all the while covering environmentalism. Some of this is thanks to celebrities, who increasingly control the agenda.
There are other societal ills that get left out of the debate, too, that could do with some A-lister support.
Recently it was shown that GP waiting times have hit a new high, with around 15million forced to wait more than 28 days for an appointment in the 12 months to August.
This is a massive social injustice — mainly caused by GPs retiring in their 50s, moving abroad or going to work in the private sector. But where do you see woke celebrities campaigning to “bring back our GPs!” They are too obsessed with electric cars and the patriarchy.
Some issues get ignored simply because celebrities are too rich to notice them — they can afford private healthcare and houses — or they live in the London bubble.
The latter explains why hardly any seem to care about HS2, a project that has upset vast swathes of the country, particularly those living in the North.
It could go £30billion over budget, and many people think smaller infrastructure projects would be better.
But where are Emma Thompson and Benedict Cumberbatch to stick up for them?
Surely, with all their concerns for environmental waste, they would want to stop such a useless, energy-intensive project. Sadly, it seems they are too busy hanging out in Extinction tents.
Even an issue as mundane as council tax deserves more attention. In the past six years in England and Wales 305 people have been sent to jail for not paying. Clearly it costs too much.
But don’t expect the great and the good to come running to the public’s defence.
If celebrities truly cared about social inequality they would be talking about the more mundane aspects of our existence, such as the price of bin collection or maternity pay, which is the biggest cause of income disparities between men and women.
But they all know it wouldn’t sell. And frankly, few can think for themselves, so they all say the same things — “privilege!”, “toxic masculinity!” — like woke parrots.
None of this is to say that climate change, or #MeToo, are not important. But many people are barely managing in the now.
Who cares about polar bears, or the actions of Hollywood producers, when you can barely afford to eat?
