Here it is:
Nice use of simple format, but done in an energetic and interesting way. Striking contrast with Labour’s broadcast: Clegg is on screen all the time; Brown was absent from Labour’s.
Have fun speculating whether all those pieces of paper are CGI or whether some poor intern got the fun job of scattering and then gathering 
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28 Comments
Liked Nick’s “Broken promises” but feel that a better ending would have been for Nick to look back over his shoulder and say, ” Don’t worry – all the paper was collected and recycled – unlike the broken promises !”
This is great. Though for the next one, two things:
- Get on to our message sooner incase people turn off
- Finish it with something along the lines of ‘I’m Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats – Help us change this country’
I think the handwaving was a little overdone. And I am reminded of House’s comment: “Let’s go for a walk. Walking gives the illusion of the story moving forward”.
I’d expect the answer on the pieces of paper is “some of both”. If you throw a couple of “real” shots in, people tend not to look too hard at the ones which were probably mocked up in a studio.
Scratch that ‘CLEAN UP and change this country’
#badpunwin
Great words, Nick was great, but paper trail was just distracting and not a great metaphor at all.
All I kept thinking was Lib Dems are rubbish.
I think this will backfire
Anyone know the background music for the broadcast? Post if you do.
Really rather good. I’m guessing on the broadcast edit there’s a URL at the end and so on
Somebody on Youtube said the music was Brian Eno’s – with permission we assume
Couple people have tweeted to say that they were there clearing the paper up afterwards, if any of that’s on tape it would make a nice ‘behind the scenes’ viral
Really distracting, all that litter. So obviously a media trick that it made the whole thing seem false. So I turned it off before the end.
Was there any mention of tricky Lib Dem broken promises on the Constitution for Europe/Lisbon Treaty referendum?
The UK signed the treaty, what do you want to have a referendum on now? I know it sounds like you almost have a point, but a promise to have a referendum on whether to do something is mooted once we’ve done it.
Andrew Suffield,
We the people have been cheated by Conservative, New Labour and Lib Dem broken promises to support a referendum on the Constitution for Europe / Lisbon Treaty.
Parliament cannot bind its successors.
Therefore the referendum I and others now want, given that the Lisbon Treaty has been signed without the promised referendum, is one on whether or not the UK should renege on the Lisbon Treaty.
I love it. I thought it was absolutely brilliant.
I’m sure people who don’t like litter would have found it pretty painful to watch.
The problem with donning the “whiter than white” mantle is that it all looks a bit hollow if and when the lib dems break one of their own manifesto pledges. Even if the lib dems won every single target seat they still wouldn’t have a majority, so the best they could do would be to be a minor party in a coalition – and they would be forced to compromise on their manifesto.
Sounds to me like setting yourself up for a fall.
So you want to stay in the EU but back out on the treaty? Sorry, that’s not an option. No government can do that. The Lisbon Treaty has been approved and is now in force; it defines the EU as it exists today. There is no pre-Lisbon EU that you can go and join if you don’t like it.
The only options are to stay in the EU and accept the treaty, or to leave the EU.
Oh hey, that’s what the Lib Dems have been saying the referendum would have to be, if we still have one. What was that about broken promises again?
@Chris – The background music is by Brian Eno. It is called ‘An Ending (Ascent)’ and is taken from the album ‘Apollo’. You can hear the whole thing on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKw5mbcE7VY
@Dane Clouston – The Lisbon Treaty is a done deal. Get over it. A referendum now would be utterly pointless.
Andrew Suffield
OK, so the only way in which we will not feel we have been cheated by the Lib Dems broken promise on the Constitution for Europe / Lisbon Treaty referendum is if we have a referendum on ” In or Out”. That would do.
Is there a promise in the Lib Dem’s manifesto – I haven’t read it yet – to have a referendum on “In or Out”?
Simon Titley
Such a referendum on “In or Out” would not be utterly pointless. Far from it!
It would be an excellent and timely way of plugging the deficit gap in the UK’s public finances.
p 67:
“Liberal Democrats therefore remain committed to an in/out referendum the next time a British government signs up for fundamental change in the relationship between the UK and the EU.”
So yes, but prompted by the next round of treaty-making rather than held automatically on taking office. Make of it what you will.
“Alix”
Yes, I see. So the Lib Lab Cons have all got away with breaking their promise to support a referendum on the Constitution for Europe / Lisbon Treaty.
So what we EU-sceptic liberals and others must go for is an “In or Out” referendum as soon as possible. We won’t get that from the Lib Dems, that’s for sure. Only make believe! A broken promise is all we get! Thank goodness there is a true Liberal Party that is EU-sceptic and anti-Euro even though not 100% clearly EU-withdrawalist these days under its present leadership.
An “In or Out” referendum may have to wait for electoral reform, with the Single Transferable Vote in existing Single member constituencies (STVS), aka the “Alternative Vote (AV)”. Then we can all vote for UKIP and other EU sceptic parties without sacrificing the ability to choose between the eventual two front runners in a constituency. That way, the will of the people may come through at last. And duff MPs can easily be thrown out.
Of course the Lib Dems will go on delaying electoral reform at Westminster by insisting upon the Single Transferable Vote in Multi-member consituencies (STVM) aka the “Single Transferable Vote (STV)”, which MPs naturally resist, being attached to their existing constituencies.
BUT Gordon Brown rides to the rescue over the horizon with HIS promised referendum on STVM / AV, which this time he will not be able to get out of.
What we EU sceptics and STVS / AV supporters now need is a Labour overall majority, unlikely though that may be, with as few Lib Dems as possible replacing Labour MPs because of the Lib Dems’ malign pro-EU and formerly and probably future pro-Euro influence.
I welcomed the SDP merger with the Liberal Party because I thought they would be more concerned about equality and equality of opportunity, but really they were keener on the EU than anything else, it seems, and still are. Although, of course, they don’t like to mention that in the election campaign.
“BUT Gordon Brown rides to the rescue over the horizon with HIS promised referendum on STVM / AV, which this time he will not be able to get out of.”
That’s gone hasn’t it? It was part of the Constitutional Reform Bill that got junked in the wash-up.
Alix
As you say, the bill providing for a referendum on AV was dropped during the wash-up process, but the referendum is still promised in the Labour manifesto. On the other hand, it’s not the first Labour manifesto pledge on electoral reform …
So what happened to the Manifesto promise of a Referendum on expanded EU Powers?
mmmm…. broken by Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems.
Is it me or do we see the same background guy twice from 1 min 20 to 1 min 26?
I thought the litter was a terrible mistake. Im a lib dem voter but i just kept wishing soemone would pick all the rubbish up. Especially in the field at the end.
Jim: good news is that you can be reassured about that – all the litter was picked up.
Hi Mark. I do appriciate that but I think the message that it gives is not a positive one, and it certainly detracts from the content that was trying to be communicated.
Oops! Although an effective campaigning video, this will now become one of the greatest embarrassments to Nick Clegg and his presumably very frustrated colleagues. A real shame.