Why ‘Sam Cam’ has turned me off Comic Relief

Comic Relief should be about this - helping children across the world to have a better life through laughter-based events (these were with Ewan McGregor in Africa in 1999). It's not about giving more publicity to media-savvy politicians.

Comic Relief should be about this – helping children across the world to have a better life through laughter-based events (these were with Ewan McGregor in Africa in 1999). It’s not about giving more publicity to media-savvy politicians.

I hate to be a party pooper but the revelation that Samantha Cameron had donned a red wig and entered the Downing Street kitchen to raise cash for Comic Relief with a bit of baking filled this columnist with dismay.

It was a fake, cynical, publicity-minded set-up that deserved to be ridiculed rather than tolerated. It stank. And it did the comedy-based charity no credit whatsoever.

How many people rushed to their telephones to ask whether Mrs Cameron would get a segment in the telethon itself – so they would know when to switch off?

Did nobody stop to think that the sight of the Camerons’ fully-equipped contemporary kitchen, reported to have cost £25,000, might be offensive to those of us who can’t afford such luxuries as a Magimix blender (£299), a £130 toaster or a £895 dishwasher?

The real giveaway was the PR-speak that we’re supposed to believe came from the head of the Prime Minister’s appendage wife: “Baking is such a brilliant and easy way to raise money for Red Nose Day,” we are told she said, in exactly the formulaic way that PR people like to write such things. “I know the children are really looking forward to selling our cakes around the offices in Downing Street.”

To staff who had already been told they had to buy, one would imagine.

It’s bad enough that somebody thought David Cameron should be included in the video for this year’s charity single – entitled ‘One Way Or Another (Teenage Kicks) and performed by One Direction. Admittedly, Cameron likes kicking teenagers, and always in only One Direction – down.

Not a good advert for the cause.

It never could have been. The hypocrisy of the situation is staggering. Here we have the Prime Minister who has done more to increase poverty in the UK than anyone since Thatcher, posing as somebody who cares about the plight of the destitute.

It’s despicable and I won’t be having it on my television.

When will these politicians – along with their spouses and, in this case, the bosses of Comic Relief – realise that appearing on charity events is a bad idea? First they alienate everybody who disagrees with their political stance – more than three-quarters of the country, in Cameron’s case. Then they alienate everybody who despises hypocrisy (as explained above).

It isn’t worth it.

For the sake of balance, allow me to add: I hated it when Tony Blair did a turn, and at least his sketch had a certain amount of wit about it.

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18 Comments

  1. Doreen Ogden March 14, 2013 at 8:39 pm - Reply

    Exactly my sentiments – nauseating

  2. BevR (@britishroses1) March 14, 2013 at 8:57 pm - Reply

    I agree, they make me gag. Hypocritical bastards!

  3. chibipaul March 14, 2013 at 9:01 pm - Reply

    Also Blair at least TRIED to reduce child poverty. They didn’t hit the target they set but at least they made an improvemnt
    Cormoron makes out he is some kind of good guy for the publicity while screwing the people he purports to help. Liar hypocrite and evil get

  4. Dave Smith March 14, 2013 at 10:02 pm - Reply

    and i thought it was just me who thought that the camerons was takeing the piss

  5. Janice Goodson March 14, 2013 at 10:07 pm - Reply

    Spin, spin and more spin with lies and corruption. I for 2 will not be watching it, sadly the children will always suffer and they should not, but Sam Camoron does not need to bake cakes or even sell them, they can hand over some of our taxpayers funds they avoid and Sam has plenty from her well overpriced stationary company. Sooner go to poundland.

  6. Derek Robinson March 15, 2013 at 12:29 am - Reply

    Considering that at the rate the Tories are going half the children in the country will soon be in poverty it’s all a bit sick isn’t it.

    • jack johnson (@jackjoh01219520) March 15, 2013 at 1:32 am - Reply

      47% are already in poverty, think about it, that’s only 3% short of half. Yes it’s
      that bad! I watched the video in the pub last night and thought that that One
      Direction are aptly named cos the brown nosed bastards are definately only
      going down.

    • Vinny Fry March 18, 2013 at 4:27 pm - Reply

      None of the kids in the estate next to me are starving and their lazy parents are all on benefits. This isn’t post-war Britain. The fat little twats can’t use their mobile phones and x-boxes properly because of their fat thumbs. They.can’t get the chips stuffed into their chubby faces fast enough.

  7. billy1872 March 15, 2013 at 1:43 am - Reply

    Yip, these toffs poncing around our living rooms via the TV, to show what nice, ordinary people they really are and they actually do have a humane caring side – is, putting it mildly, gut wrenching. While they are causing untold misery, fear and worry to so many vulnerable people at home. I wonder when at home do they take off their face to reveal their mask?

  8. Joanna Terry March 15, 2013 at 5:44 am - Reply

    I have stopped giving to charity since this lot have used it to shower so much misery on the heads of us that can least fight back. Even the “innocent” ones will not get a penny from me until the ceo’s realise that supporting any government to put the boot into the population is a massive money loser. So much of the money donated fails to reach those that we think we are giving it too, a new system needs to replace this neo-liberal greed that feeds on the generosity of people who actually care about their fellow humans. I hope that many more of us realise this and we can hurt them where it counts and change it for what it is supposed to be about and not just another way to make their millions on the backs of the poor. I give directly now, if I know someone needs help and I can give it, they will get it.

  9. The Dalai Farmer March 15, 2013 at 9:59 am - Reply

    Please people, such vitreol does nothing but preach to the choir. Just because the super-rich Blaires were so dishonest does not mean that everyone is. Perhaps she just wanted to help? I’m a buddhist and this kind of hatred can only be destructive! This woman is not in politics personally. She is the WIFE of a politician. My Husband shoots pigeons – should I be blamed for that when I believe life is sacred? No, each person is responsible for their own actions.

    I am also willing to bet that half the people who have commented with such venom didn’t vote last time. I did. You?

    • Mike Sivier March 15, 2013 at 10:20 am - Reply

      I can’t speak for anyone else but I certainly voted last time.
      And I think you’re mistaken about the super-rich Camerons’ motives.
      Samantha is indeed the wife of a politician, living in a taxpayer-subsidised, ultra-modern home with the best of everything while her husband and his cronies suck the life out of the very people the government are supposed to be helping the most, and then give us mealy-mouthed doublespeak to justify it.
      As a buddhist you will understand the concept of karma; therefore you will appreciate that the backlash this couple should expect for their actions (in general, not just this) must be enormous.
      If your husband shoots pigeons and you do nothing about it, even though you disapprove, do you not share some of the blame for that loss of life?

    • Beth Anderson March 15, 2013 at 11:23 am - Reply

      Your husband shoots pigeons and you dont think you’re to blame even though you think all life is sacred? Wow. You married him and chose to live with him and sleep in the same bed as a person who brutally murder innocent animals for fun. Yes, part of that blame does fall on you because no decent person would stand for something like that.

      • The Dalai Farmer March 16, 2013 at 10:12 am - Reply

        He didn’t shoot when I married him. Better to die quickly after a good life than to a fox or rats when you’re old. What he shoots is eaten, and has had a better life than most of the supermarket rubbish that most people eat. I don’t like it, but it’s HIS decision – mine decision is that he is in every other respect a good and thoughtful person with a sense of fun. Let those who are without any kind of compromise in their lives and with no kindness for other people live their lives. I have made compromises, but I still don’t condemn Sam Cameron for trying to help, however nasty people are going to be to her. Give her a break!

  10. aussieeh March 15, 2013 at 9:00 pm - Reply

    If Sam Camoron would like to come round to my Council flat and make her nibbles in my kitchen she is welcome (well sort of) the thought of having a Tory in my hovel, Buddhist or not makes me feel sick. She would have to put up with the gales that blow through the ill fitted windows and doors, in the recent cold weather it was between 7 & 9 degrees in the kitchen, I managed to get it as high as 16 degrees with the heating on. the dicky electrics, the spore infested cupboards, I have to hold my breath every time I open a cupboard door, the flooring is cracked, split and black, not with dirt may I add. I mop regularly with a bucket full of disinfectant health permitting. I have multiple degenerative deceases, one of them being emphysema, A visiting nurse wrote a letter for me approx 2 years ago explaining how this was no good to my health problems. A waste of her precious time, The council promised me a bungalow 4 years ago. I could write a book on the problems alone,at least 10 in each room, most health related. I have a box room that I turned into a small bedroom that my grandson stays in, his mother has mental issues that started 3 years ago and the local Social Services dumped him on me for a couple of weeks they said, 16 month he stayed with me, I supported him with my disability benefit and got very little help from the Social Services. He now lives with his father but comes to stay with me at weekends. I love that lad and feel sorry for what he as had to go through. When he lived here he called the ambulance on 3 occasions in the early hours getting me the medical attention I needed, I was admitted to hospital on each occasion, I now have to pay the bedroom tax, he doesn’t count apparently. But I digress, She is quite welcome to my grotty council flat to cook in my kitchen, that if was owned by a private landlord would be condemned (no pun intended) as being unfit for human habitation. But hey it’s a step up from the street or a tent.. .

    • The Dalai Farmer March 16, 2013 at 10:26 am - Reply

      I am very concerned for your health and well-being. I wish I could help you, really. If I wasn’t on a fixed income due to ill health I would send money, but I can’t. I am sure there are many others ‘out there’ who feel for you, some in even worse conditions than your awful situation. Who is your MP? What party are they? Have your written to them? Have you contacted the Citizens Advice people? I used to volunteer as a admin assistant and they offer free advice and will go to court or the housing department with you if you need them to. They really care and will help as much as they can. I’ve spent time in hospital, too, and I truly feel for you.

      None of this is Sam Cam’s fault, but neither is it mine. Please get some help for you and your family?

      • aussieeh March 17, 2013 at 2:35 pm - Reply

        I thank you for your concern but please do not worry on my account, I am an adult and live life as such, I do not beg, borrow or steal, I only ask for what is rightfully mine, I paid my dues for 35 years almost. When my health permits I try to fight my own battles, if legal help is forthcoming I do accept it, unfortunately due to the massive cuts by this fascist government to organizations such as citizens advice etc that help is now scarce. I would die protecting my grandson that’s what family’s do and if it means I have to do without so he can have, then so be it. I just wish the establishment and authorities would stop making my already hard life worse than it is. What would be really nice, would be if everyone with a conscience that saw through the utter corruption of this lot of governmental parasites got together, the sick and or disabled, the unemployed, the poor, the low paid, the doctors, nurses, honorable MP’s, those that this inept government are trying their best to portray as scroungers, lazy, parasites, workshy, fools, if they all united as one and made their voices heard. So thank you again for the empathy it’s heartwarming to know there are still decent human beings out there, millions of us. I stand shoulder to shoulder with you in this fight and thanks to sites like this one and Black Triangle our voices are slowly becoming louder.. .

  11. rainbowwarriorlizzie March 15, 2013 at 11:19 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & POLITICAL JOURNAL and commented:
    In Solidarity!!

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