“We are the Popular Front against All Things Bad” – Private Eye’s MD has had enough
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Dr Phil Hammond is preparing to put himself on the very public line and stand for Parliament in 2022. Or, as he predicts, maybe next week. How depressing though, that even he thinks his new venture IKIP (the Intelligent Kindness Party) has no place in the current political climate.
Hammond has been in the NHS for 32 years, in comedy for 30, and in Private Eye for 28. He doesn’t want power. He just wants his local MP Jacob Rees-Mogg to stop telling him that he has, “absolutely nothing to fear” when the world is clearly terrifying.
Jeremy Hunt “scares him”.
“Boris’ bumbling is manufactured” so he can get his disclaimers in without anyone noticing.
People boast about dodging their taxes.
Where has it all gone wrong?
In this show Hammond moves away slightly from health and the NHS and gives us his opinion on what ails politics as a whole. His is a liberal agenda: votes for 16 year-olds; removing the emphasis on unsustainable economic growth; the return of science and compassion in politics.
It is bolstered by his online petition to insist on annual mental and sexual health checks for MPs (he says some of their current blustering reminds him of tertiary stage syphilis, and it would be best to be check it out.
And if doctors have to be validated every year, why shouldn’t MPs? His manifesto seemed to have the support of the crowd.
A middle section of the show was spent deliberately airing his own dirty laundry in public as if he intends to stand, he might as well get it out there now, right?
So, we hear very movingly about the mental health history of his family, very amusingly of seeping “souvenirs” gained backpacking in Australia.
it’s all there, and it inspired various other… um, frank admissions from amongst the audience.
There was a lot of sexual health chat in the show, no surprise as Hammond worked there for many years and declares it a vital and perpetually cut area of health.
But it would be brave parents who brought their 14+ year-olds, the recommended age, to share this hour with them.
There are many challenging stories and ideas within Vote Dr Phil.
The structure of the show wobbles in places and you wonder where you are heading, but it is all entertaining, and you emerge from the room with a lot to think about.
o, sing it loud and sing it proud! “Dr Phil for Health Secretary, he’s got to be better than the last three”.
My suggestion – if you get the chance to, Vote IKIP. It makes perfect sense.
