STRICTLY ATTENTION SEEKING..

Last evening I started to watch the England-Switzerland game but after a few minutes, I decided I wasn`t interested in watching a bunch of overpaid, womanising, millionaire poseurs managed by a £6million a year Italian easing their way to qualification for Euro 2012. So I turned over to watch the end of the 20-20 cricket international between England and Pakistan which England won comfortably. Not surprising really given the mess that Pakistan cricket is in and also given that these days the England cricket team contains a small gathering of South Africans and an Irishman as well as some doughty English battlers . Inclusivity and multi-culturalism rule OK it seems..... all the time the results keep coming.

But even that tv exposure will soon pale into insignificance with the announcement of the new season of Strictly Come Dancing and the list of `celebrities` subjecting themselves to this seasonal humiliation. They are, of course, the usual collection of has-beens, never-weres and fading once-upon-a times and include, as if in a fit of BBC spitefulness, one time Maidstone MP and Government Minister Ann Widdecombe.

Now I really thought that when she gave up being an MP at the last election, she might just slip quietly away to Devon and never be seen or heard again. But it seems the glare of publicity and an irrepressible need for attention seeking has proved too much for this celebrity virgin to resist. I can`t say why I`m not looking forward to it or, indeed, why I wont be watching it, but I think there may be two reasons.

First, I don`t like shows that rely on ritual and institutionalised humiliation in the name of entertainment. It`s not funny seeing people who should know better make fools of themselves but, secondly, I`m old fashioned enough to think that people like Ann Widdecombe being seduced into taking part in the Strictlys of this world, somehow diminish the work they did in government and especially the offices they might have held. Goodness knows, politics and politicians need all the help going to restore some public faith and credibility and putting themselves up for these kind of fols-de-rol ain`t helping. Oh, hang on, Prime Minister`s Questions are back again. Maybe there`s no escape after all.