Eddie Izzard not successful in becoming Labour candidate

Surely Eddie only has to identify as a MP, change his name to Eddie Izzard MP, adopt “the right honourable” as his preferred method of being addressed and then demand access to the Houses of Parliament?

What could possibly go wrong?

This is about what we expect from our representatives. We expect them to adhere to social decorum, listen to people’s concerns, speak truthfully and honestly. The trans ideology does the opposite to all that. It rides roughshod over social standards, elevating the narcissistic needs of men in dresses over the rights of women and girls. It ignores and even demonises those sections of the populace that know what sex is. And it sacrifices truth at the altar of a delusional ideology that says sex can be changed. Izzard, I’m afraid, reminds people of all this, that wokeness is in truth a threat to dignity and equality. And so they say No. Good luck with Hamlet though, dude.

Brendan nailing it there.

Isn't democracy wonderful?

The marathon stuff was lauded because of the money he raised but it was also obsessive and against all principles of athletic training. Gym addiction is a thing and do, I imagine, is marathon running if you can pay for a support team who never day “are you ok? This is a bit much”

I suspect he has periods of obsessive thinking which he can fuel becaise he has moeny and influence and has made himself special.

I am not convinced he really wants the job. Not when he'd made plans for January and didn't bother to swot up and instead effectively ad libbed much like a comedy routine.

As I said upthread his Brexit appearances came across as performances rather than serious intentions in politics. And the egotistical proclamations about how he could save the world if only we did what he said. The word that keeps popping up both then and now is 'incoherent'.

That combined with the marathon phase, makes me wonder if it is merely seeking an audience. Yep just plain old attention seeking. Just as his comedy audiences decline and he himself declined in relevance. It's almost as if he's attempting to 'do a Madonna' to reinvent himself to stay relevant and keep audiences rather than have a meaningful political career.

Either way, if given an ounce of power this man would be dangerous because of that ego.

Makes sense that it's not because he's trans but because he's an abrasive, self-centred arsehole who would lose voters left, right and centre.

Personal and toxic is what women in politics why, isn’t it?

so this is inclusion. He is the one who wants to be treated as a woman, after all.

Brendan O'Neill in Spiked seems to agree with most of us

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/12/18/face-it-eddie-no-one-wants-you-as-their-mp/

Which makes very clear: his sole interest in the job is as a forum for him to be all about him; not even at the hustings sufficient interest to do some research. The only service or representation would be towards his own interests. This is unfortunately quite a pattern in male people with gender identities coming into positions of representation.

He was an extremely charming man at one point, who appeared to be intelligent. It's sad to see what sex addiction and a midlife crisis can do to a person.

In one of his videos he talks about things he’s done, like performing stand-up in French. How this would make him a good MP was unclear. So he was likely just not a good prospect. However I agree with Margot he would have been good sunlight.

Especially a Labour candidate...

No real surprise that he didn't get elected though is it? Good.

Totally unsurprised at this. He thinks politics is about MPs just shouting in the commons. He hasn't the time nor interest in the donkey work of being a consituency MP. That matters.

This is sarcastic right?

Izzard's performance (and it was a performance) for the referendum involved shouting at people and being abusive and not remotely listening to anyone. It was cringeworthy and upset a huge number of people. Not just his political opponents but those who shared his views because it was so rude and embarassing in the way he stated his views. There were more than a few Remainers who openly said that even though they were massively pro-EU he made them consider voting to leave. A number of newspapers ran articles at the time about it.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/if-he-wants-remain-to-prevail-eddie-izzard-needs-to-stay-out-of-the-eu-referendum-debate-a7074716.html

But – and you could tell there was a “but” coming – his current campaigning in favour of continued British membership of the European Union is bad for his reputation, bad for the causes he espouses, and bad for public debate in Britain. A few weeks ago, on The Andrew Marr Show, Izzard was incoherent and unpersuasive when asked about his pro-EU views. On Question Time this week he was actually awful.

For some reason Izzard, a highly intelligent man, slipped into a frankly bizarre kindergarten lingo about the need to stick together and co-operate rather than be divisive. He spoke in platitudes about our history, and cut across his fellow panellists in a way that made Nigel Farage appear the height of decency and civility.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/bbc-question-time-eu-referendum-eddie-izzard_uk_575a5d01e4b0069193654e78
Eddie Izzard's BBC Question Time Tussle With Folkestone Woman Sums Up EU DebatePanto season starts early this year

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum-eddie-izzard-nigel-farage-bbc-s-question-time-told-shut-up-debate-brexit-a7073816.html
Eddie Izzard and Nigel Farage told to 'shut up' during tense BBC's Question Time debateOngoing squabbles between the outspoken pair made the programme close to unwatchable

Eventually, the pair were told by Mr Dimbleby: "Calm down because the audience will get so cross they'll walk out. They'll do a Brexit!"

To which Mr Benn added: "There's a bit of a problem controlling the panel this week..."

Then there was this example of staggering egotistical statements which I find quite frankly jawdropping:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/jun/15/eddie-izzard-i-may-look-confusing-but-i-have-a-clear-message
Eddie Izzard: 'My vision would make the entire world work'

Not everyone has taken to this less familiar version of Eddie Izzard: the earnest, political campaigner making lofty, unrehearsed speeches. Following a panel appearance at the University of Reading earlier this month, a student tweeted: “It’s like he’s writing an essay and trying his hardest to make the word count.”

They have a point. As I interview Izzard backstage, he isn’t always easy to follow. He speaks quickly, and passionately, lurching from one subject to another, unleashing a stream of abstract nouns. “I think that people want real people to be in politics,” he tells me. “Politicians are real people, but they’ve spent their lives in politics. I’ve looked for the edges of life. I’ve looked to see where can we go, what can we do, what can we see, what can I analyse about the direction forward. I’ve come up with this worldview which I think is the worldview that we have to do, which is we have to be heading towards a world where there are fair chances. Because otherwise, people are going to be despairing. Despair is the fuel of terrorism, and hope is the fuel of civilisation.”

This is quite frankly how ideologues and dictators speak - they don't want debate. They want to TELL you their view for the world and thats that, we should all just nod along.

The whole thing was utterly painful and made it very obvious just how unsuitable for politics Izzard is - even at a time full of some really terrible MPs.

I've not seen anything from Izzard since that has countered this impression of his political campaigning to be anything different to him getting on a soap box and telling us what we should all thing. Far from 'being real' he's a man who has spent his career in the spotlight with adoring fans telling him how wonderful he is and boy does it show. Its ego ego ego. And its got out of control.

This isn't personal. This about his conduct when it comes to political engagement and interactions with the public. He is categorically THE worse person I have seen in British politics in my lifetime.

I find it utterly disturbing. And thats why I comment on the Izzard threads, because I find what he's saying and the way he's saying it and the ego that goes with it and the tone deaf lack of awareness so concerning. I don't even need to comment on the trans stuff because its his political manner and engagement that speaks louder.

The fact he's not managed to convince even grass roots to vote for him, despite his high profile, isn't entirely surprising.

Really?
I would expect someone to show hard work and commitment before rather than after the fact by getting on top of the brief. It would be a big red flag in any other situation if a candidate hasn’t bothered to do that.

He can be enormously hard working and dedicated when he wants to be but he doesn’t seem to have shown any evidence at all that what he wants to do with that energy and dedication is serve the local area as a good constituency MP.

What I liked about that Twitter response to Derren Brown is that that is all she was bothered about- no issues about his being trans, just, will he serve local people, because that’s what the job is.

Apparently he gave a terrible performance at hustings events. No grasp of any of the big issues in community - housing etc. No substance.

He needs politician mode.

Doesn't say much about Labour's commitment to workers if one of their candidates is happy to put a stage crew out of work if their political career takes off.

he knew nothing about local issues, and had a three month Broadway residency lined up in January. Hardly suggests commitment. He did say he'd cancel his theatre run if he was selected- which sounds very unlikely, what with the legal ramifications

From what I read, he was planning to use his time as MP to transition, so the main commitment and drive to get things done would not have been for his constituents, but for himself.

Izzard said that when he became an MP, he'd start transitioning properly. Cos he thought he would have lots of free time.

https://twitter.com/CatQQShadow/status/1736519235298271319

Really?

Eddie has made some really awful, dismissive comments about women who have concerns about single sex spaces and safeguarding.

Basically just dismissed them all as dinosaur bigots and implied that they will go away if everyone ignores them for long enough.

I would have absolutely no confidence in his ability to represent female constituents in parliament.

Poor Eddie, he always wanted to have gravitas and be a Serious Actorrr and a Serious Politician but ironically he would be much more respected if he stuck with stand-up comedy.

I was listening to Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar (BBC Sounds) last night and there is an episode where he lays into Eddie and other standups who want to do politics. Something along the lines of "Eddie Izzard ran 9 marathons in 9 days which just goes to prove...running a marathon must be a lot easier than it looks."

(I don't agree with Alexei on many things - Corbyn for one - but he has always put being funny ahead of being morally or politically pure. He has no fear about taking the piss out of himself or his political allies.)

I think, regardless of where one stands in the gender debate, Eddie would have been a good candidate, no doubt about his hard work, commitment and drive to get things done. Although I am gender critical, I agree that these threads can become personal and toxic.

@Hicc probably feels unable to reply to anything in writing knowing he could potentially be hounded out of society for believing in something as sensible as biology.