Another instalment in our occasional series rounding up political videos doing the rounds – for this special Friday night edition, we’re delving back a little further into the archives to recall three of the great Liberal leaders of the past few decades.
First up, here’s the only clip I can find of Jeremy Thorpe, being questioned by a studio audience alongside Jimmy Saville (how times change):
By the way, if you’ve never seen Peter Cook’s magisterial ‘biased judge’ summing up from 1979 at the conclusion of the Thorpe trial, click here and enjoy 12 minutes of the finest satirical comedy ever staged.
Second’s up is David Steel, here represented by the famous excerpt from his leadership speech in 1981 – yes, that’s right, the “go back to your constituencies and prepare for government” one:
Does anyone know, by the way, whether there exists an online version of David Steel’s rap record ‘I Feel Liberal, Alright’?
And finally, to bring us right up to date, here’s an excerpt from Paddy Ashdown’s recent barnstorming appearance on BBC1’s Question Time, here reminding us all – once again – why LDV readers recently voted him our party’s greatest living orator:
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3 Comments
That first clip really does show how things have changed in, what, just over a generation. That air of deference in the audience, the considered question, and indeed Jimmy Saville…
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Jimmy Savile looked exactly the same to me. John Redwood didn’t seem much different either.
The closest you are going to get to an online version of David Steel’s I Feel Liberal Alright is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq9J4QubmJ8