Preview: Charlie Brooker interview, “I shouldn’t swear, I’m in a playground."

Earlier this month, XCity Magazine students asked Charlie Brooker to turn his attention to the upcoming General Election. As you can imagine, his feelings were disparaging, incisive, hilarious and sometimes a little ugly.

Fresh from a string of Weekly Wipe shows earlier this year, Brooker is set to run a one off special Election Wipe in the run up to 7 May. Speaking about the show he said: “At a time of great political uncertainty it will be a honor to bring some much-needed confusion to the national debate. Since our show transmits in the run up to the election, it will have to adhere to strict impartiality rules, which means it will – by law – be equally disparaging to all parts of the political spectrum.”

Here are five teasers from the Black Mirror man, before the full interview runs in the magazine.

Brooker on…

MPs and social media

“I suppose no MPs really come across well on social media. They’ve got to watch what they say as they’re always getting abuse left right and centre for tweeting something ill advised about the topic of the day, or they’re direct messaging pictures of their knob. So it’s a bl**dy minefield.”

Electronic voting

“For people that talk about electronic voting it must be a big thing for them to have to go and put a piece of paper in a box.”

Image by FishInWater

The current unpopularity of MPs

“MPs need to notice that the people who seem to have an impact are the ones who seem to act like they don’t really care what people think. So your Farages and your Prescotts and your Johnsons and your Russell Brands. The problem is that they are also egomaniacs.”

Image by News International Newspapers

The end of the tabloids impact on the election

“It is partly due to things like social media. Twitter is like a lightening quick version of the tabloid papers of the eighties, so the public often fulfil the same role that the tabloids used to.”

Image by Allan warren

MPs and their media image

“When Harold Wilson was in charge, he was famous for having a pipe. It turns out that his advisors gave it to him because he kept clenching his fist when he spoke publicly and it looked really off-putting. They gave him the pipe to stop him doing it and it became iconic.”