Discovery+ has announced that it has made a five-part series about stuffy former Tory MP Rees-Mogg, his wife Helena and their six children. It will, unfortunately, air later this year, and you can bet that ratings will be low – a pattern established by Rees-Mogg’s ‘work’ as a condescending anchor on GB News, a heavily biased rightwing ‘news’ channel pushing the archaic opinions of failed Conservatives.
The multi-millionaire Rees-Moggs may well be trying to appeal to the same public they didn’t win over during Jacob’s recent election campaign. They’ll no doubt be trying to downplay their privilege – Rees-Mogg’s wealth has been estimated to be in excess of £100 million when combined with his wife’s expected inheritance – and hoping to keep their bigoted views under wraps while attempting to hide the false sense of entitlement that oozes out of them.
With characteristic lack of self-awareness and breathtaking self-opinion, and fixing his new project firmly in the past where he appears most happy, Rees Mogg has already described the show as “More Fawlty Towers than Downton Abbey” – two extremely well-written, award-winning programmes packed with charismatic leading actors.
If the show’s producers are dreaming of BAFTAs and the longevity of either Fawlty Towers or Downton, they will want to hide the fact that the Rees-Moggs’ hobby is the illegal ‘sport’ of watching foxes being torn apart. Fortunately for the health of the film crew trudging after the unbearably dull Rees-Moggs, the footage was filmed after the 2023/24 hunting season had ended because Jacob and his family would have been unlikely to hide their bloodlust. They remain outspoken about their staunch support for the murderous Mendip Farmers Hunt (MFH), a fact the ex-MP bragged about on social media as recently as last March.
Indoctrinating kids from a young age
Protect the Wild has already covered how the Rees-Moggs ride with the MFH, host its meets and attend its balls, while Helena was previously a master of the hunt. The Independent reported in 2019 that the Rees-Moggs hosted a meet when a badger sett was blocked, illegal under the Protection of Badgers Act.
Helena and Jacob have thought nothing of indoctrinating their kids into hunting from a young age. Helena often takes their children out as field riders with the MFH, and the children have witnessed illegal events at meets. Mendip Hunt Sabs previously told us:
“Helena Rees-Mogg and one of their children were present on Boxing Day when a fox went to ground in a badger sett after being chased over a kilometre by hounds. They rode right past the patch of gorse where the hounds were marking the fox to ground.”
The sabs continued:
“On another occasion, one of their teenage children was seen illegally riding on an overloaded terrier quad (which also had its number plate obscured) with two other men on a public road. We have seen foxes illegally hunted on several other occasions when the Rees-Moggs were in attendance, including in the barbaric cub hunting season.”
On top of this, the MFH is known for being one of the most violent hunts in the country. Once again, you have to question the parenting of two adults who are happy to surround their kids with men who are repeatedly convicted for criminal damage or assault.
Deluded
Meet the Rees-Moggs, as the show is called, reeks of desperation. Jacob is no doubt hoping that an air of detached bemusement and banging on about ‘wokeness’ will give him the same sort of buffoonish ‘charm’ that Boris Johnson played upon in order to become the Mayor of London and then a catastrophic Prime Minister. Other members of the family will simply be hoping to get their five minutes of fame.
Will the “everyday story of Somerset folk” (according to the deluded former MP) be the UK’s answer to “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” then? Discovery+ may be crossing their fingers that viewers will be fascinated by the wealthy, snobbish Jacob and his brood, but they will, no doubt, be sorely disappointed when they realise that in 2024 no one cares about the ultra-privileged, out-of-touch lives of a family of fox hunters.
