FibDems

LIB DUMB

POLITICIANS have a reputation for making silly claims when they want our votes.

But the Lib Dems yesterday appeared to have set new records for bogus answers.

Scottish leader Nicol Stephen said he doesn't want any new nuclear power plants in Scotland.

But he won't say if this will be a deal breaker in any future coalition talks.

Cynics would say it depends on how many ministerial Mondeos are on offer.

And UK leader Sir Menzies Campbell gets caught out on two simple questions.

He claimed the Arctic Monkeys had sold more records than the Beatles and that the Lib Dems had won the Bromley and Chislehurst byelection, when they finished in second place behind the Tories.

And these are the people who want to run the country?

THE LIB DIMS

Clueless Ming stuns party faithful with shock gaffes
By Rosa Prince Political Correspondent

BUNGLING Ming Campbell turned into a party joke at the Lib Dem conference yesterday - with a string of embarrassing gaffes.

Dim Sir Menzies, 65, had hoped for a confident start to his first conference as leader - but blundered on everything from how many by-elections they had won to his favourite TV shows.

The first clanger, in a Q&A session in front of delegates, came as he tried to mock Gordon Brown's claim to be a fan of indie band the Arctic Monkeys.

Aides cringed as he spluttered: "I know where the Arctic Monkeys come from. I know they've sold more records than The Beatles.

"But the idea, as was reported by the Chancellor, that I'm going to turn off the Today programme and turn on the Arctic Monkeys seems a little remote."

In fact the Sheffield band, famed for the hit I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, have sold 500,000 - a fraction of the Fab Four's one billion.

Ming again came a cropper over his grasp of popular culture when he claimed he would spend Monday night glued to cult US political drama The West Wing on BBC4. He would have been sorely disappointed as it is on Sundays on digital channel More4.

But the hapless leader stunned activists in Brighton when he could not even get basic political facts right.

He claimed to have led* them to victory in the two by-elections fought under him - in Bromley, Kent, and Dunfermline & West Fife.

He bragged: "We won in both of those places because we had the right candidates with the right campaigns."

But the Lib Dems only came second to the Tories in Bromley.

And Ming has led them in three elections. The third, in Blaenau Gwent, Wales, in June, was on the same day as the Kent contest.

"I'm Prime Minister you know..."

* Technically he didn't lead them in Dunfermline either since he was only acting leader during the leadership contest - yet more fibbery.

# posted by Porridge Oatens @ 5:18 PM