Eddie Izzard not successful in becoming Labour candidate

[KitchenDancefloor]

Oh dear. What a shame. Never mind.

He needs politician mode.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Especially a Labour candidate...

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.

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.

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/

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.

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.

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.

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.

Isn't democracy wonderful?

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.

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?

It was politics as therapy, with voters reduced to mere masseurs of their aspiring MP’s fragile sense of self.

Yes, as someone on here said that Labour MPs no longer seek to represent working class voters, but instead believe that those voters are the facilitators of their political ambitions. It's main character syndrome (which Eddie has in spades).

Similarly in my constituency (a swing seat) the local Labour councillor who failed to get chosen as our parliamentary candidate has stopped talking to any of his colleagues who voted for the successful candidate and barely seems to do any work any more.

I am waiting to be told that once a man has identified and presented himself with a desire to be elected that it is transphobic not to validate his desire with a vote so that he can live his best life/be authentic/true inner self/realise sacred stuff yada yada.

There are usually no excuses accepted to not be an immediate NPC, I can't see democratic rights would be any more respected than sexuality, faith etc. I'm sure such demands will come.

It doesn't bode well when an actor doesn't even have the sense to do the groundwork. A bit of research and applying the skills of his trade might have resulted in a different outcome. Although I'm grateful he wasn't selected.

He seems to have absolutely no idea what a good political representative does, or the kind of competent, professional persona to project. Either he's a rubbish actor, or is so wrapped up in his own ego that it didn't occur to him that most candidates, in the beginning at least, are playing a part. Maybe the fact that incoherent bumbling doesn't seem to have been an obstacle for Boris has made Izzard think the electorate are fools

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.

I agree entirely about his capacity for hard work. His stand-up routines must have taken a long time to hone and master. Imagine the effort that would have gone into all those marathons. And so on. I don't think he's afraid of hard work.

On the other hand, to be an MP you need to be a team player, and that's the one thing I'm pretty sure he's not. For the most part being an MP isn't glamorous, it's answering constituents' letters, holding surgeries, sitting in endless boring meetings, attending House of Commons debates and so on. You don't even get to do your own thing - most of the time you vote the way your party whips tell you.

If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that Izzard would actually hate being an MP.

That's a fierce and accurate article that perfectly nails how the public view transactivism and transactivists trampling all over women's rights and safeguarding.

Brendan has nailed it.

Shock horror his "I won't be around but I love you so much so everything will be fine, isn't my suit pretty, I'm a woman right?" schtick didn't work.