DAN HODGES: Those on the Left cheering David Tennant's attack on Kemi Badenoch should be careful. Soon the celebrities who embrace the 'Viciousness of Virtue' will need new targets - and Starmer's cabinet may be first in line
‘It’s [about] human decency,’ said former Dr Who actor David Tennant, as he accepted his British LGBT Celebrity Ally Award at last Friday’s glitzy London gala.
Then, to cheers from the audience, he promptly revealed his own personal decency has its limits. ‘However, until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist anymore…’ Tennant paused, initially to milk the applause, then finally in recognition of the fact he’d gone too far. ‘I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up,’ he added, to more applause.
This trendy abuse of a senior black, female cabinet minster was actually relatively restrained compared to HBO talk-show host John Oliver's rant against the Tory party in Monday’s episode of Last Week Tonight.
‘Britain has its chance to wash itself clean of 14 miserable years of Conservative rule,’ the British-born, New York-based multi-millionaire roared, before declaring ‘F*** off into the sun, you c***s, f***-pigs and weirdoes, tossers, w*****s, d**k-splashes and c**k-wombles. If Britain stands together, this July 4, it will finally celebrate its Independence Day!!!’
His monologue – deranged rant would be a fairer description – was immediately seized on and disseminated far and wide by Labour’s social-media Starmtroopers. ‘So important not to miss out on making this happen. Vote. Whatever it takes to vote them out. Just do it. Seeing the back of the worst government in history will be a rare moment of sheer joy,’ gushed Tony Blair’s old spin-doctor Alastair Campbell.
Celebrity political endorsements are not new. Although the Tennant and Oliver speeches were less endorsements of a political party or set of ideals, and more a gleeful punishment beating of a Tory party that is already battered and broken.
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David Tennant receiving his British LGBT Celebrity Ally Award at last Friday’s glitzy London gala. You could see the glint in his eye as he wished for Kemi Badenoch to be wiped from existence
But such interventions are entirely legitimate. When my own Oscar-winning mother, the late Glenda Jackson, was criticised for using her celebrity to promote political causes, she inverted the argument.
‘Why should my celebrity absolve me from my obligation to engage as an active citizen?’ she would reply. And in her defence – not that she ever felt she needed one – she was prepared to put her money where her mouth was, take her arguments on to the doorsteps and stand for elected office.
She didn’t pontificate from the security of a TV studio three-and-a-half thousand miles away, or the stage of five-star London hotel.
Tennant and men like him take the opposite view. It seems to me they believe their celebrity gives them a special status. As white, straight men they can freely insult a black woman, and try to silence her.
They can deploy profanity and vulgarity, rather than construct any sort of coherent political argument. And their fame will carry the day, and allow them to soar above the norms of mature public discourse.
They are also embracing that credo much beloved by the broader Left – the Viciousness of Virtue. You could see the glint in Tennant’s eye as he wished for Kemi Badenoch to be wiped from existence.
‘I’m one of the good guys,’ he was telling himself, ‘so I have licence to say this. I’m wearing a white hat. So anything goes.’
If confronted – though they won’t be - Tennant and Oliver would claim they were simply telling truth to power. The opposite is true. Oliver earns $8million (£6.3million) a year fronting a show for one of the globe’s most influential television networks. Tennant’s award was sponsored by HSBC, Moodys and Moet & Chandon.
They are power’s courtiers, not its challengers.
There are exceptions. Last week JK Rowling had the courage to stand by her convictions – and step directly in the path of the onrushing Keir Starmer juggernaut – by criticising Labour’s leader for his stance on women’s rights. Bob Geldof produced a highly personal video supporting his friend Andrew Mitchell, and praising his work on overseas aid and development.
But they are not the norm. Support for Labour – or more specifically, antipathy towards the Tories – is currently all the rage. And Britain’s celebrities are queuing up to sport it like a pair of the latest designer trainers or luxury watch.
Kemi Badenoch, the Secretary of State for Buisness and Trade, was on the receiving end of the fiery rant by the former Doctor Who star
Yet those on the Left currently cheering on Tennant and Oliver should be careful. Because celebrity fashion can be fickle.
At the moment it’s Kemi Badenoch and Rishi Sunak getting the ‘A List’ kicking. But soon they and their party will be a historic footnote. When that happens the audiences of the nation’s award galas will be demanding fresh blood.
The comedians will need new punch-lines. And the princes and princesses of pre-watershed television will have to earn their applause wishing some of Prime Minister’s Starmer’s new cabinet away.
I wonder who their first victim will be? David Lammy is on record as saying Labour will have to reach out to Donald Trump. Yvette Cooper will have some very tough decisions to take on immigration. Wes Streeting has said he will not treat the NHS as a sacred cow.
But, whoever it is, the rules have now been laid down. When it’s black Labour ministers under attack. When it’s female Labour MPs being told to shut up. That will all be fine.
Because it’s all about human decency. And David Tennant and John Oliver are the good guys... right?