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Let them eat bushtucker

This year’s ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ is attracting more interest than usual. This is due to the behaviour of ‘Lady C’, the aristocratic ex-wife of Lord Colin Campbell, son of the eleventh Duke of Argyll.

Among the usual cast of retired sports stars, soap actors, TV presenters, and aging pop stars, Lady C has injected class war!

According to Lady C, we, the viewers are “oiks”. Anyone who dares to challenge her opinion in the jungle is relentlessly attacked. She has called Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet a “moron” and dismissed others as “assholes”!

After trying to humiliate two of her fellow jungle contestants into acting as servants – quite rightly, they refused – she has refused to take part in any of the trials which would bring food into the camp.

Maybe she took a wrong turning somewhere, because she could very easily have been a character in Downton Abbey.

Mick Whale, Hull

Benn’s bombs

The definition of a demagogue: “a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular fears, desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.”

Hilary Benn is the darling of the right-wing media right now, and basking in the approval of the most right-wing Tory government since World War Two. The Murdoch press, Daily Mail and the rest, including right-wing Labour, will promote him as the man to replace Jeremy Corbyn.

His resort to flag-waving jingoism is the device used by demagogues throughout the ages. Benn’s reference to Labour ‘internationalism’ – and to the International Brigades’ fight against Franco (see comment page 9) – to buttress his support for international capitalism – were totally unscrupulous.

He implied that opposition to Western military action constituted less than total opposition to the monstrosity of Isis. The millions who oppose bombing, which will result in the slaughter of the innocents, need no lessons from Benn. He enthusiastically supported the invasion of Iraq which unleashed today’s sectarian madness.

Tony Mulhearn, Liverpool