Danny Alexander was in relaxed form on last night’s The Agenda programme on ITV. Host Tom Bradby had a bit of a gentle go at him for always wearing the same tie, showing numerous photographs to back up the claim. It was the very tie that Danny had on. He was able to completely disarm Bradby by saying that his 6 year old daughter chose it so he likes to wear it a lot.
By far the funniest moment was the look on his face, pictured above, when fellow panellist Germaine Greer was talking about her experience of judging the Wet Dreams film festival in the 1970s. They were discussing the new, explicit film Nymphomaniac. His own contribution to the discussion was that people should be free to watch porn if they wanted, but he was more likely to be watching the Lego Movie than the Legover movie.
Other highlights included a discussion on Scottish independence and the ruling out of a currency union. Danny said that the idea that Scots could throw away 300 years of successful partnership on the basis that Alex Salmond says it would be alright on the night was “completely mad.”
He also said that for him the proudest Liberal Democrat achievement of government was getting the economy back on track.
The full programme is quite enjoyable, one of these occasions when the panel, Greer, Danny, Clive Anderson and even Amanda Platell worked well together. You can watch it here.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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4 Comments
With all of the current noise about what might happen with the unit of currency, I’ll inject a brief reminder (with tongue firmly in cheek) that a pound in one country hasn’t always equated to a pound in the other. In the Seventeenth century, the Scottish coinage was rationalised. It traded at a stable rate against English currency, £1 Sterling equal to £12 Scots. So a Scottish shilling had the same value as an English penny.
I lived in the Republic of Ireland from the early 1960’s to mid-70’s, when Ireland’s currency was the Punt. It was loosely linked to the UK pound and sometimes it had the same exchange rate, sometimes not. Often shopkeepers made up their own exchange rate depending on the prevailing weather or the day of the week. They would put posters in their windows stating what rate they charged, and this could differ from shop to shop. It was not uncommon for a bill to come to 12 punts and the shopkeeper say ‘ call it 10 sterling!’. It was a system open to the fraud and dodgy accountancy that often accompanies cash transactions of this nature, and it may be replicated in Scotland if they go down the same currency route, in which case it might be an interesting, if not challenging experience to barter the cost of the weekly shop in a Glaswegian Tesco!
Danny was a real star … particularly in what he said about Scotland staying in the UK.
I thought that the Liberal Dems support home rule – but now Scotland has a real chance of it they have ditched 100 years of history and are the attack dogs of the Torys. Danny Alexander and Alistair Carmichael are becoming hate figures and its a shame as there will not be a Liberal party in Scotland by 2016. I am not sure what the difference between home rule and what the SNP have proposed especially with a currency union actually is. What powers do the Liberal Party think that Scotland can not manage? Why are you so keen that Scotland has to be dragged into mad wars that you usually vote against – the position of the Liberal party is schizophrenic – support a YES vote and be a Liberal not a Tory.