Facepalm of the Week

They say you should never meet your heroes because they will always disappoint you. They also say you should avoid cliches like the plague. I met Patrick Stewart when he came to speak at the Cambridge Union about his strong support for the Labour Party. I must admit, I didn’t really go to hear him talk politics. It was the Star Trek geek in me that got excited hearing him talk about boldly going to a better future under Labour. Excited as I was, however, I was reluctant to ask for his autograph. I’ve met a fair few famous people over the years and I’ve never seen the value in their name scribbled on a piece of paper. But, when a friend told me their brother, quite coincidentally an avid Star Trek fan, was being bullied at school, I decided to swallow my embarrassment and ask Stewart for his autograph on their behalf. He said no. I can respect his reasons and, having met a childhood hero, I wasn’t all that disappointed in him.

I was, however, very disappointed to learn today that Patrick Stewart has publicly backed David Miliband for Labour leader. I’d like to Fisk him. I’d like to deconstruct each one of his superficial points on the aspects of Miliband’s personality, not his politics, that make him the best possible Labour leader. But I’m just going to leave this one to Jean Luc Picard…