Rumour has it (well, The Independent’s gossip column, and even most news stories – so, fact, really) that the newly single Lembit Opik, MP, is gearing up to succeed Simon Hughes as President of the Liberal Democrats by hiring a slick PR outfit. Engaged until recently to Cheeky Girl Gabriela Irimia (now said to be happy without him, Irimia claimed to have felt ‘brainwashed’ during their relationship – was the PR in effect there, too?), and most recently tarnished by the mantle of reality TV through Living With The Cheeky Girls, Opik apparently climbed his first ‘challenge’ when The Sun reported he was joining Celebrity Big Brother.
He said no, of course. He is a politician – a man of thought and dignity, existing on a plane far above such things. [PAUSE] But is it not convenient that such an offer should suddenly appear, allowing Opik to distance himself from that filthy genre that so many people watch? If you were being cynical, you might almost suspect that the offer never existed in the first place, and simply appeared in order for Opik to get his serious hat on. But that would be terribly cynical. And that’s not the business of this blog. No sirree.
SCIENCE EXTRA: Renaissance man’s plan to snare rogue space rocks with ‘cosmic condom’
News hour, with Jerry Caesar 