The Liberal Democrats haven’t had an easy time since forming the coalition government with the Conservative Party in May 2010.
The Liberal Democrats haven’t had an easy time since forming the coalition government with the Conservative Party in May 2010.
The referendum into changing the voting system from the current first past post version showed that Nick Clegg’s passion for a new voting system wasn’t shared by the general public and there’s also the complete mess the Liberal Democrats made over tuition fees and Clegg’s frankly cringe worth apology he released in September 2012.
The video was later mocked by the British satirical news website The Poke and to make things more humiliating the video later went viral. But Clegg could be in for some good news as he’s now not the only Liberal Democrat to have his own humiliating song.
Norman Baker, MP for Lewes in East Sussex and Transport Minister, released his band’s (The Reform Club) first single last week. The single, entitled Piccadilly Circus and its accompanying music video, was released to YouTube on March 17th and so far it has received a somewhat mixed reception.
However I can’t help but wonder how Clegg and the majority of the Liberal Democrats feel about it. Is it just a bit of harmless fun? Probably yes but it’s also likely there a little humiliated by the sight of one of their MPs walking around London in a black trilby while what sounds like an unwanted and half-finished Kinks demo plays in the background.
Still, it’s unlikely The Reform Club’s single or indeed its album The Next Day will attract the same amount of attention as Clegg’s “I’m Sorry” video so I suppose that could be seen has a small blessing for the Liberal Democrats.
In hindsight the Liberal Democrats have suffered a lot of humiliation since forming the Coalition. For example, David Laws MP was appointed as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on the 12th of May 2010 but didn’t even last three weeks in the job after the Daily Telegraph reported that he had claimed £40,000 from 2004 – 2009 as part of the expenses scandal.
Laws resigned as the Chief Secretary on the 29th of May 2010 due to the revelations although he did later return to government as the Minister of State Schools in September 2012. So they didn’t get off to the best of starts and things have just seemed to progressively get worse for them.
Earlier this month, the former MP for Eastleigh and Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, was jailed for 8 months for perverting the course of justice. So while scandals like this seem to have plagued the Liberal Democrats since forming the coalition, is Norman Baker’s single anything to worry about?
No not really. It’s probably humiliating for the Liberal Democrats but they’ve had a lot worse in the past couple of years alone. Although perhaps a cover of the Rolling Stones “It’s All over Now” or D:Ream’s “Things Can Only Get Better” would have been better choices of song to reflect the thoughts of some of today’s Liberal Democrats.
What do you think of the state of the Liberal Democrats? Has this song caused further humiliation? Have your say in the comments section below, on Facebook or on Twitter.
