At last, a great institution filled with trusted public figures. Shame the Traitors don’t run Britain | Marina Hyde

<p>The Celebrity Traitors drew to a magnificent close this week – and proved that these lying double-crossers are of a far finer calibre than our MPs</p><ul><li><p>This article contains spoilers about the final episode of The Celebrity Traitors</p></li></ul><p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/nov/06/the-celebrity-traitors-final-review-what-an-absolute-blinder">Celebrity Traitors final</a> was so good that the TV moment of the year (Nick revealing he’d written Joe’s name on his slate) only held its crown for six minutes before the actual TV moment of the year (Alan revealing he’d been a traitor all along) completely stole it. Epic congratulations to Alan, a full-spectrum entertainment booking, who from the first minutes of this season catapulted himself to the status of high-value national treasure, while Joe Marler also leapfrogged 27 stardom categories in the public imagination and should now be made Duke of York. And look, it wasn’t all bad for historian and Guardian Scott Trust board member David Olusoga. Thanks to the deputy PM and justice secretary, he was only the second most <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/06/lammy-says-he-was-right-not-to-discuss-mistakenly-freed-prisoner-at-pmqs">spectacularly wrong David</a> of the week.</p><p>But why am I bringing politics into it? After all, one of the most remarkable shifts I haven’t been able to help noticing during this epic first run of The Celebrity Traitors is that no senior politician has attempted to refer to the show as a way of currying public favour. They’d certainly get short shrift if they tried. But this represents a radical break with the past 20 years, where politicians and prime ministers became transfixed by the popularity of reality TV. In the first twisted heyday of the genre, politicians really thought it was the answer and they could steal its