I Am Kurious, Oranj

I watched last night's BBC3 documentary on Robert Kilroy-Silk with some interest. Demonised by the left, and demonised by the party he joined (and admittedly tried to usurp), which he admitted, in a moment of weakness, he joined not really knowing what it was all about or who his colleagues might be. They are indeed a gaggle, particularly the blustering chauvanist loon Godfrey Bloom and Roger Knapman, the leader, who constantly looked in a deep state of flux, perhaps due to the apparent disappearance of his lips.

Seems to me RK-S is no demon, just a man who never fails to double-take, with a grin, at his own reflection when passing a tinted window. His wife clearly worships him, but how can she compete with his clear adoration of himself? He speaks of telling the truth, but doesn't check his facts. He confirms, denies, confirms, denies, his interest in taking over the party he joined only a few months before. He pointedly walks away from a European Parliament colleague whose party believes homosexuality is a sin, but undoes that good work by immediately stating that it was, essentially, for the benefit of the camera and his public image.

Is Robert Kilroy-Silk a dangerous man? I don't think so, just a completely ludicrous one. I'm surprised he has left UKIP, as he seemed in good company.

There's an interesting blog here concerning these matters - UKIP Uncovered

Anyway, 'Kilroy - Behind The Tan' was certainly a good documentary but ultimately it was a bit haphazard in determing exactly what its focus was. Nonetheless, there were some classic moments, which in some cases may have been down to clever editing.

*There was Mike Natrass MEP (West Midlands Region) addressing a public meeting in Hartlepool, and left speechless by a comment from the floor that while UKIP would talk of bringing down the European Parliament, they were happy to accept it's perks.

*Pretty much every comment made by Godfrey Bloom, who seemed to forget a camera was there even when staring into it.

*Kilroy telling the film-maker to 'fuck off'.

The pièce de résistance though was capturing RK-S in full bombastic flow in the chamber stating, vividly, "Mr President, that shower down there purports to be the government of Europe. Is that the best you can do? Is that the cream, the elite? They are a joke! However you shuffle the pack, the joker comes to the top. They are a gaggle of rejects, failures, has-beens, no-marks, liars, dodgy characters and communists..." (full text here). It was a speech which, for entertainment value, would have only been made better if he'd ended with "and they smell of bums".

As it was he was eventually called to order by the speaker, which he challenged by shouting that he was speaking the truth. If, instead, he'd scrunched up his face and said "oh do one, you... you... you rubbish!", I could have even found myself liking the man.

Sometimes, political theatre is just not facile enough.