Just when you thought things could get no worse for the Lib Dems, they produce this excruciating video

You can stop holding your breath. The Lib Dems have produced a new party political broadcast, due to hit Britain’s TV screens on 20 September. And a sneak preview from The Independent reveals it’s just as excruciatingly painful as the party’s previous efforts at producing promotional videos.

The teaser

On 18 September, the Lib Dem Press Office released a teaser video for its latest party political broadcast. It featured new party leader Vince Cable looking a bit creepy:

Coming soon…. our new Party Political Broadcast! pic.twitter.com/nBGws73B3s

— Lib Dem Media Team (@LibDemPress) September 18, 2017

You may think that’s bad enough. People on social media clearly did. But then, The Independent posted the full party political broadcast on Facebook.

The video

Released the same week as the first episode in the latest series of BBC mockumentary W1A, the Lib Dems’ video tries to send up creative agencies. But unfortunately, the party’s tone-deaf execution doesn’t quite work. In fact, if it succeeds at anything, it succeeds at sending up [0:54] its own party leader:

OK, um, he’s an economist… He’s the guy who warned about the financial crisis before it happened… He was the Business Secretary that massively increased the number of apprenticeships… He brought in a long-term industrial strategy… He set up the Green Investment Bank to support renewable energy… No?… He was on Strictly.

And [1:48] its own party:

It’s not just a political party. This is like an anti-Brexit dance party. We’re social. Socially liberal. Liberally social. The party party. Guys, this is the ‘alt-middle’… Post-centrist. Radical and reasonable. RadiCable.

Having nailed the disdain with which many in Britain already view the Lib Dems, the video then drives [2:54] the point home:

You realise you’re already describing the Lib Dems?

The backlash

The video’s first outing did not go down well on social media. At the time of writing, these were the top comments on Facebook:

But while the party unabashedly tries to win the youth vote from Labour, there’s a problem. The Lib Dems seem unable to reflect on their own history of colluding with the Conservatives to inflict austerity on Britain.

The Lib Dems’ record

Here’s a brief look at a few of the policies the Lib Dems enabled while in coalition with the Conservatives. They:

• Trebled tuition fees after the Lib Dems promised to scrap them.
• Oversaw the sell-off of Royal Mail.
• Backed workfare – an illegal scheme that forced jobseekers into wageless labour.
• Oversaw the introduction of the bedroom tax.
• Pushed the NHS to the brink of collapse.
• Increased VAT.
• Gave tax cuts to the rich.
• Sold off school playing fields.
• Closed libraries.
• Trashed the rights of disabled people.
• Slashed legal aid.

Unrepentant

Speaking at the Lib Dems’ conference, former party leader Nick Clegg said that austerity was:

what created Jeremy Corbyn. Because if you spend five years demonising austerity [as] some sort of evil choice, then of course you can never digest ideas that sometimes you need [to] row back as a country in a way of living within the means of what you can afford.

Nick Clegg hasn’t learned the lessons of history. And after two parliamentary beatings, the Lib Dems haven’t learned either. They still don’t understand the damage their chosen doctrine, neoliberalism, has inflicted on the people of Britain. And poorly executed spoof videos will do nothing to help them.

Get Involved!

– Buy Naomi Klein’s latest book, No Is Not Enough: Defeating The New Shock Politics.

– See more Canary articles on the Lib Dems here.

– Join The Canary, so we can keep holding the powerful to account. Also read and support other independent media outlets:

Media Diversified, Novara Media, Corporate Watch, Red Pepper, New Internationalist, Common Space, Media Lens, Bella Caledonia, Vox Political, Real Media, Reel News, STRIKE! magazine, The Bristol Cable, The Meteor, Salford Star, The Ferret.