Suzanne Harrington: I feel foolish for expecting better from Russell Brand

You only have to look at those who have come out in Brand’s support to see where he has positioned himself politically

Suzanne Harrington: Russell Brand’s credibility as a political being has long been lost down a toxic warren of batshit tin-hattery; now, his credibility as a human being has gone straight after it.

Of all the feelings about the ongoing Russell Brand situation, the most overwhelming has been a crushing sense of weariness. Exhaustion, disgust. Fury, obviously, but smothered in a heavy blanket of disillusionment. You too, Russell? Accused of rape and sexual offences? In the same category as Prince Andrew and Andrew Tate? It feels like the oxygen being sucked out of the room.

I’d been a fan once. A decade ago, there’d been a short-lived golden age where Brand had stopped being a manic irritant on pop telly, turned his back on bubblegum Hollywood output, and seemed to be growing into himself. He wrote books about recovery and revolution, funded community projects, popped up at yoga places, ditched the hairspray and eyeliner for something more socially engaged. He appeared to be directing his talent and platform for the common good, albeit with a baked-in god complex. Or was this new altruism too good to be true?