When your own president of your political party describes the party as Cockroaches and Nutter you sort of know that things ain’t going all that well for the poor old LibDems. Not since the former protest vote party sold all decent-thinking people down the river and played Quisling to Cameron and Osborne’s occupying force, has their public image been quite so poor – nor quite so amusing.
Shortly after the LibDems stole office, the liar and expenses-fiddler David Laws had to resign as a minister after having been found to be trousering public money. Mr Clegg, of course, knew nothing of this until he read it in the newspapers (bastards).
The memory of Laws’ (sic) misdemeanours had all but faded enough for Clegg to re-introduce him to polite society when the Liberal Chief Exec Lord Rennard was accused of interfering with young women, often against their will. Naturally, Mr Clegg knew nothing of these events or accusations before the press (nasty old good-for-nothing press) broke the story.
Now we read (in a national newspaper, of all places) that half the Liberal Cabinet (though not Mr Clegg, you understand) knew about Chris Huhne and his wife perverting the course of justice weeks before the Sunday Times broke the story. Fuckin’ papers. Why can’t they just shut them all down ? All they do is ruin people.
Anyway, all the above is, of course, by-the-by, and just a reason to run again one of the great pieces of British comedy.
Our older reader will remember with much mirth the Jeremy Thorpe/Norman Scott Affair, when the establishment and the legal system weighed in to exonerate the Liberal Leader Mr Thorpe from accusations of a (then illegal) homosexual affair and of hiring a hit-man in a cocked-up murder attempt to silent his (alleged) gay lover, Mr Scott. Here’s the great Peter Cook’s take on the summing up of the case by the judge, Mr Justice Cantley, when, according to all who were there, he left the jury in little doubt over what verdict they should reach.
Always worth another look.
