Nick Clegg’s viral apology video

The free publicity which comes with party political broadcasts is more powerful than the broadcast itself: nowadays, our MPs hope their messages will go viral. Nick Clegg’s apology has: and how. The below video has his voice being digitally altered (like Cher’s in Believe) but the result is far catchier. It demands to be watched:

The video-maker has done Clegg a favour. Only the most cold-hearted cynic would feel a tinge of sympathy for him  here, which may be been the idea behind the video. What Tony Blair called the ‘masochism strategy’ where you apologise and get visibly beaten up, ideally by a pensioner, until voters start to pity you.  The funniest thing, to me, is that Clegg isn’t apologising for breaking his promise – he’s apologising for making it in the first place. This raises questions not just about the relevance of party manifestos but of political parties per se.