Big Brother's Little Parliamentarian

He is either cannily promoting himself and his noble worldly aims on national television or he hasn't learned George Galloway's cruel lesson that Politics and Reality TV just don't mix but, whichever it is, step forward John Loughton, Chairman of the Scottish Youth Parliament and the latest ambassador of the Scottish political scene on a UK platform. He will be appearing in Celebrity Big Brother, presumably from tomorrow night.

I was intrigued by this affable chap so I digged a little into his history, digging that resulted in me learning to my horror that I am no longer officially a "Young Scot". No doubt I will soldier on despite this shock in a manly way that befits my many years.

Anyway, back to John Loughton. He is 20 years old, born in Edinburgh, studying Politics and Sociology at Stirling University, fiercely anti-nuclear, he wishes to stand for public office in the next couple of years, he seems to have coined the phrase: "young people are citizens of today rather than just adults of tomorrow", he thinks people with red hair are hard done by, he has shaken hands with John Swinney and, interestingly, he voted Lib Dem in 2007 with the SSP close to winning his second vote.

Whether we watch Big Brother or not I daresay we are going to come to know a lot about this young man and I genuinely hope we also find ourselves very fond of and impressed with him. So much so that I am tempted to stick a tenner on him being the First Minister of Scotland one fine day. Well, only a little bit tempted, he is a Lib Dem after all. Not that such a lowly party affiliation stops some people's rather wild ambitions.

However, despite all these lofty ideals and early press attention, one has to wonder, was John's decision not to switch off his rather public Bebo website an example of youthful naivety? Time will tell....