20 questions with social commentator, author and former ‘I’m a Celebrity’ and ‘The Apprentice’ candidate Katie Hopkins
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
“Get a Grip”: I am a woman that believes in hard work. Everything else is gratuitous emotional drama employed by the weak for attention. I don’t do sympathy, hence am impervious to Comic Relief and One Direction crying. This is not a bad thing.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
“Telling it like it is”: I simply iterate the things people say to each other when they gossip or in the privacy of their own home. But I do it on national television. Women see me as the cuckoo in the nest because I am supposed to be one of the sisterhood. The truth is the sisterhood are like lemons soaked in acid.
Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2013?
I am considered unacceptable I think. Simply for not subscribing to the PC values someone called Jeremy or Myles at the BBC signed us all up to without out consent.
Personally I would pick on someone a little more deserving of the title like Jon Venables. He was released with a fourth new identity (£250,000 a pop) into communities where there are kids after killing a two year old and distributing paedophile material of others.
Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?
I will miss my mum when she pops off. I am concerned that, as the most senior member of my family, I will be expected to know what to do at all times. This will not be the case. Plus my mum is a good egg, cooks a marvelous roast and is the most forgiving woman I have ever known.
What might you swap all your wealth for?
I would not swap my wealth for anything. Wealth enables you to find solutions to things that poverty would never allow you to achieve.
However, I am confident that placed into poverty, I would find a way to generate wealth for my family again. Grafters will always find work. It is part of our make up.
Donald Trump was once a case of: “If you owe the bank a thousand, they close you down; but if you owe the bank a billion, you own the bank”. What’s your view on the banking crisis?
In experiments with monkeys, over a period of time, they will demonstrate behaviours that are risk averse. Offered a certain one grape in exchange for ‘money’ or a gamble on the chance of two grapes or the possibility of no grapes they will always choose the one grape.
Bankers are exceedingly risk positive. The average Joe fails to understand the strength of man required to operate in a high risk, high pressure environment.
I am pro bankers. Anti outrage.
What phrase or word do you most loathe?
I have many: “I am calling in sick”. “I can’t”. “I’m having a baby”. “I have sick on my holiday. Can I reschedule my holiday days?” “I need to leave early to pick up Tiny Timothy with Toothache”. “I would like to talk about going part time”. “I am on maternity leave”. “I need to speak to HR”. “HR says…” “I would like to schedule a meeting”. “Can you email me the thing we’ve just talked about?” “Can we schedule a chat?” “I have a blue badge”. “I am on income support”. … I’m stopping now due to time pressures.
In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home”. What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?
I work for free for one charity. I am concerned charities are paying their management and staff above market rates and are not answerable to their donors. I will never support individuals fulfilling their holiday plans via a charity. I do not retweet charitable messages – piety gets tiring.
The judge in Law Abiding Citizen states: “I can pretty much do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?
I fully support the Sainsbury’s till worker that refused to serve a customer that got off her phone. My children will not have a phone until they can afford to pay for it. I grew up without one. I fail to see that the world is any more dangerous now than it was twenty years ago.
The majority of kids on free school meals at the local state school have an iPhone, and iPad and play station. This represents a misallocation of funds from the public purse.
If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?
Dad – loves trains, mum – goes everywhere with dad, husband and kids . Family before hot air. That’s it. Space is a luxury on transport. Not being amongst people is a far greater pleasure.
The list of whom I would NOT invite is a great deal longer.
If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?
Sod the last meal. I would read a paper. Better to die thin and informed than fat and ignorant.
What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?
I don’t really drink. But my great granddad is 96 and has a sherry before lunch so I imagine midday will see you through.
A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?
Yuck, yuck and double yuck. Instant coffee. Preferably in a clean cup. But never drunk right to the bottom. Who knows what lurks in the murky depths?
Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?
Girlfriends parties at home. Glitz and glamour are like German to me. A foreign language I never want to understand.
Who is the most positive person you know?
Workwise, I am probably as excitable as it gets. I am endlessly enthusiastic about work – even if the content can be harsh on the weaker ear.
What’s your most guilty pleasure?
Sitting alone with a newspaper. There are always a thousand things I could be doing than sitting on my arse reading a paper. If you are hard wired to work, not working has guilty overtones. This is something only the self-employed can truly understand.
If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?
Graffiti on my skin? Not a chance. There is more likelihood of me subscribing to The Guardian, embracing an anti frack protestor, or moving in with Caroline Lucas for a tumultuous lesbian relationship than there is of me spending money to display prat credentials on my skin.
If you were a car, what marque would you be?
A Range Rover. I am a 3×2, Ulrika is a 4×4 (ratio of men to kids). I wouldn’t call her aspirational. I would say she sounds off road and robust!
Cilla Black presented Surprise, Surprise. Tell us the most surprising thing about you.
That I used to work as a security officer at Disney pulling paedophiles out of the Peter Pan maze, that I have a gold star from the McDonalds drive through section and that I was an army 800 metre runner.
What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?
An empty bottle from a girlfriend’s party, a brilliant photo of my kids on holiday all looking pretty normal (three kids never look relatively normal all at the same time) and a reminder of my first divorce. Mistakes on your mantel are a good way to remember important things in your life.
Katie Hopkins is a social commentator and author. She participated in The Apprentice in 2007 and famously quit in the eleventh week. She has also appeared in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and is well known for her controversial views. Watch her showreel “Telling it like it is” here.
Follow her on Twitter @KTHopkins
Subscribe to our free once daily email newsletter here: