Danczuks Complaining To IPSO?

Following their car crash interview with Camilla Long, which appeared in the Sunday Times magazine at the weekend, self-promotion (or perhaps that should be selfie-promotion) specialists Simon Danczuk, still nominally a Labour MP, and wife Karen have suggested that they are less than enamoured of the result. The first sign of dissatisfaction was when he deleted a Tweet, and a Retweet, before the paper went on sale.

Behold the representatives of Themselves Personally Now

And, despite the publicity, she claimed that Ms Long’s article was only “40% accurate”. Perhaps the MP who represents part of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, a town with a great Liberal tradition, while calling “Metropolitan Liberal” on his critics, was so ticked off with the finished article that he was going to put his foot down - with a firm hand, of course - and demand satisfaction from Rupe’s allegedly upmarket troops.

Seasoned Danczuk watchers did not have long to wait for The Great Man to take a firm stand: yesterday evening, just a day and a half after the ST hit the local newsstands, came the ominous Tweet “Contemplating reporting a journalist to @IpsoNews, something I haven't ever considered doing in nearly 30 years in politics”. That would have been rather difficult 30 years ago, as IPSO only came into being last year.

But, hey, details, eh? What else could “the Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe of Rochdale” (no, don’t laugh) be ready to complain about? It had to be Ms Long’s article - didn’t it? What was their problem with it? Was it the observation that “The Danczuks are hilarious - she does boobs, he does books”? Or perhaps it was the claim that “Neither of them is afraid to admit that they like making and spending money”?

Maybe Simon was unhappy about the description of his wife’s business acumen thus: “the 32-year-old has recently been selling prints of the signed and ‘scented’ selfies for £10 each on eBay, apparently putting the proceeds towards a white Range Rover … The 4x4 dwarfs their modest bungalow, a hulking reminder that the loidy of the house is ‘famous for her breast pictures’”. But if she has been selling selfies, and there is a 4x4, well … 

It could be the observation “Parliament’s queen of selfies twirls vacantly and takes pictures with her two sons … I have never met a family so chaotic … During the interview she cries and then Simon cries, both swear and loudly slag other people off and everyone behaves as if this is a perfectly normal Sunday morning … Simon’s otherwise successful career as an MP is in danger of being drowned by a tide of sportswear and nipples”.

Whatever, he was still alluding to his unhappiness this lunchtime, Tweeting a view from the Shard with the observation “3 guesses why I'm here & meeting @camillalong for a cup of tea isn't quite the answer!” Yeah, whatever. If Simon Danczuk thinks that Camilla Long’s article is worth a complaint to IPSO, then he should get off his jacksy and do it - and give us all a good laugh. Because he’s likely to come out of that one looking even worse.

Sometimes you have to realise that what you see in the mirror is you. Hello Simon!