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People get angry that Mark Francois gets invited on to talk about things despite the fact that all he offers is ignorant bile. But it's worse than you think: He is invited on *because* he offers ignorant bile.
What possible other reason could there be? No-one knew who he was. Then he did an interview gibbering about fighting the Germans and tearing up the withdrawal agreement. Went viral. Then he was all over TV and radio.
The reality is that this is the kind of behaviour we are encouraging, as a political culture. Behaving in this way has done his career *good*. And now look at who is prime minister and ask yourself why.
Don't blame the bookers either. Their job is to put together a programme people want to watch. Half the people who see that shite thinks he's 'telling it like it is', the other half like to hate him, as a vindication of their own superiority. Both watch, just the same.
We're all to blame. If you've shared a video of him online, or brought him up as a joke -as I have, countless times - then this is all on you too. Shit, we even had a competition on him on the podcast.
I really don't think there's much you can do about the human instinct to want to see people who are watchable and represent hinge world-views highlighting difference attitudes in society.
But it'd be cool if liberals got their act together and realised that presentation, entertainment, and low-grade political spectacle actually matter and can be used alongside rational argument.
