I find it really interesting the way people are drawn to power, usually male power, sometimes in its dark mode. I wonder what they get from it. My experience of bastards is that there is very little material benefit gained from being in their company, though you feel there might be, any minute. Or you get something for a while and then the polarity switches. It’s a huge con. Trump made the mechanism clear – in this, I think he is a timely figure.
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 197 →Their frankness and honesty.
An inability to see the other side.
Dishonesty. It destroys relationships. It’s something celebrities especially have to guard against because people are prone to tell you what they think you want to hear rather than the truth.
More from Hugh Skinner
View profile →I think we’re definitely gone, but I do think people leave traces everywhere from what they did in life, and live on and continue to make an impact through the ripple effect of that.
In the back of my mind I just assumed I’d be in a boyband at some point.
I’m not interested.
People singing in the street.
Everything’s temporary, and how to make aioli.
Pigeons. One got stuck in my flat once for quite a long time and it really changed how I feel about them.
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