I WRITE this with a mixture of mirth and trepidation. Mirth, as I have just read the hilarious yet informative new Daily Mail column about diet pills by Boris Johnson.
But trepidation because the Daily Mash (which I have been assured is in its own way just as influential as the Mail) has asked me, Rosie Holt, MP of Akenfield West, to pen my own column.
Can I match the wordsmith Boris Johnson? Sadly, I don’t have the gravitas and experience to write about the important issue everyone wants to know about: diet pills.
But I also never went to Eton, which means I am lacking in the ability to write with strength and humour, instead having to fight the feminine urge to just cross and uncross my legs to distract my opponent/reader.
I originally wrote two pages for this article but the editor assured me that, like funds for the arts, less is best, so I have penned just a few paragraphs. I had to cut my section about diet pills – I couldn’t match Boris’s honesty and compassion about chorizo and cheddar.
So in my first of what I hope will be many articles for the Daily Mash (I asked the editor about this several times and she said ‘it was a matter for the House and not the editor’, a strong decisive answer which reflects leadership I am compelled to admire) I thought I would address politicians like myself who take second jobs in entertainment.
One of my constituents, Barry, who is recovering in hospital after being run over by a ride-on mower, emailed me to say, ‘I am so looking forward to reading your column where I hope there is something funny about chorizo, argh my leg it hurts.’
As a reader you may be asking what myself, Boris and Nadine Dorries have to offer in the world of newspaper columns, or broadcasting like Jacob Rees-Mogg, Lee Anderson, Esther McVey, Philip Davies and Nigel Farage. Or reality TV like Matt Hancock.
You may wonder why I, an MP, am starring in Rosie Holt: That’s Politainment! at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, at the Pleasance from August 2nd-27th. Well, to answer your questions, what is serious here is the priority of the British People and that we stop the boats. Plus I have reached my word limit. Stop the boats. Chorizo.
Rosie Holt: That’s Politainment! runs at Pleasance Courtyard 2 at 8pm at the Edinburgh Fringe from 2nd August to 27th August (except 15th August).