Lookalike #3

Another day, another lookalike for you lucky people. And not for the first time, we contrast someone appallingly pretentious who can’t get into their head that many see them as a figure of fun with a figure that is equally pretentious, and equally a figure of fun. We remain in the fertile territory of right-wing Clever People Who Talk Loudly In Restaurants, where the finest specimens of empty pretentiousness can be found.

Pretentious figure of fun

And here is today’s example of pretentiousness made reality: he wasn’t important enough for Wikipedia, but Raheem Kassam, PR man for the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) and self-styled “executive editor” of serially dishonest group rantfest The Commentator, strikes a very important pose. Laid back, self-assured and with that air of academic aloofness – who could that remind you of?

Another pretentious figure of fun

Well, that’s not a very difficult one for those whose light reading matches the cerebral level of The Commentator and HJS. Yes, if you’ve ever read the equally challenging Beano once in a while, you’ll recognise those qualities in Dennis The Menace’s smug adversary Walter The Softie. Kassam hasn’t yet graduated to openly wearing a bow tie, but give him time and he’ll be there.

As to the qualities required, he fits the bill too: Walter is described as “dull, sneaky, swotty and cowardly”. Yep, that’s Raheem Kassam in a nutshell. Or even a wingnutshell.

More lookalikes to follow, folks. It’s daft not to.