Russell Brand: a very trivial man?

Last Wednesday in a Newsnight interview, Russell Brand told a bemused Jeremy Paxman: “David Cameron says profit is not a dirty word; I say profit is a filthy word, because wherever there is profit there is also deficit”. 

He is absolutely right, of course. Back in 2007, you wouldn’t believe what Mr Brand was paid to present a television series called Russell Brand’s Ponderland. That was one stonking profit to Mr Brand, while the balancing deficit was incurred by me and hundreds of thousands of other disappointed viewers who switched off during the first episode. 25 wasted minutes stolen from our lives, never to be repaid. And not a single laugh in the bank.