John's win is a victory for us all

Published on Wednesday 30 January 2008 09:28

IT was a victory for the ordinary man (and woman) when John Loughton won Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack on Monday night. The hulking, ginger-haired 20-year-old from Pilton was about as far removed as it is possible to imagine from the plastic-looking, fame-seeking wannabes who make up the usual reality TV show fodder.

John was raised, the eldest of four brothers, in Pilton and Muirhouse, areas where he readily admits educational expectations were low. But a determination to rise above his circumstances spurred him on to knuckle down at school and gain a place at university.

An Evening News youth award-winner and now chairman of the Scottish Youth Parliament, John pipped the competition in the E4 show by showcasing his refreshing normality. And it was hard to avoid an inward cheer when, after scooping the title, he immediately announced his intention to hand over a large chunk of his 50,000 prize to his unassuming mum Donna McColl.

John's is another example of a story we all love to hear – triumph against the odds, an inspirational tale of someone who has escaped the poverty trap or smashed the class barrier. It's a bit like when, against all probability, kind-hearted but impoverished, chocolate-loving schoolboy Charlie Bucket wins a golden ticket to enter Willy Wonka's magical chocolate factory – and then goes on to own it.

But the question is: will John make good on the promise he's shown so far and achieve his dreams, said to include becoming Prime Minister? Or will his decision to go on Big Brother see him end up just another casualty of the reality show route to fame?

Leon Jackson, from Whitburn, was the last local boy to leapfrog to fame when he won ITV1's X Factor talent show. Weekly national exposure was a huge catapult for the 19-year-old, who'd only sung publicly for the first time a few months prior to the show, at karaoke.

He soon got an early taste of the perils of celebrity though – a severe throat infection forced him to cancel what could have been the highlight of his career to date, an appearance at Edinburgh's Hogmanay. Before he'd even emerged from his sick bed, he was savaged for his lack of staying power by singer Amy Macdonald, who felt that not having come up the hard way, he wasn't tough enough to deal with success.

Inspirational stories can provide much-needed motivation for those trapped in the rut of believing their future prospects are bleak. Sir Tom Farmer still gives speeches sharing his story of how he went from a 14-year-old school leaver to millionaire tycoon of the Kwik-Fit empire and owner of Hibernian FC.

It is hard not to admire the spirit of Edinburgh oarsmen Reinhardt Von Hof, Leven Brown and Rob Loder-Symonds, who rowed for 33 days through storms, pain, bereavement and exhaustion to cross the Atlantic in record time. The plucky rowers set themselves an enormous feat of physical and mental endurance and then let nothing stand between them and achieving it.

Saturday's Evening News also offered a chance to reflect on how winners can emerge even from the most miserable circumstances when David Goldberg, from Liberton, told how he'd escaped a Nazi death camp by a hair's breadth.

Arrested with his five-year-old brother and put onto a train to Poland, it was only by chance the train was turned back at the border. Otherwise, David is sure he would have shared the fate of 20 close relatives who died at Auschwitz.

The 84-year-old now dedicates much of his life to telling schoolchildren and students about his experiences, so the Holocaust is never forgotten or repeated.

That John Loughton sat on the BB throne on Monday should serve as a good reminder that with the right mental attitude we can all triumph. Eloquent, smartly-dressed – OK, perhaps too soberly attired for a young fella of 20 – he doesn't have the natural sense of entitlement that comes with a public school education. Instead, he has the confidence of a young man who has coped with circumstances that might have floored less determined adolescents.

When he couldn't get peace to study in his mum's council flat, crowded with three boisterous younger brothers, he took himself off to stay with his grandparents. When he was teased for being brainy, it merely made him more determined to go into politics.

John told the Evening News just a few months ago that the problems he'd faced growing up were tightly wound up with class perceptions. But there was no way he was going to have his ambitions dampened by other people's image of what people from his area could achieve.

"Coming from where I'm from there's a prerequisite for failing," he said, "There's no real prospects – but a lad from Pilton can get out there and be like anyone else. I do want to prove people wrong and show others it can be done. I want to show other young people that anything is possible."

So far John's been true to his word, on the strength of hard work and ambition. With 50,000 to spend and the springboard of a reality show to launch him we can just wait with baited breath to see what he does next. Good luck to him.