Sir Ed Davey has released a Christmas single. No, really.
Called ‘Love is Enough’, it is, of course, all in aid of a good cause. The Lib Dem leader has joined forces with the Bath Philharmonia’s Young Carers’ Choir to raise awareness of the difficulties encountered by young carers – something Sir Ed has personal experience of.
You’ll forgive me for not reviewing the track itself because, as a heavy metal fan, I barely made it through the first 90 seconds. The issue, though, is not the lack of shredding guitar riffs but the ongoing lack of seriousness from a man who now leads the third-biggest party in the House of Commons.
In September, I wrote on these pages that voters who switched to the Lib Dems ‘will now want to see that their decision has gone towards electing a serious set of politicians, not a circus.’ My view has not shifted in the time since.
The Labour government, barely six months into its miserable reign, is a mess and has already lost its first cabinet member. Kemi Badenoch still has a lot of work to do to get the Tory house in order. There is political room for the Lib Dems to carve out space on the liberal, centre ground, but they are focusing on stunts instead of planting their flag there.
Not that Lib Dem MPs seem to agree with me. Tom Morrison told me that ‘as a former punk singer myself, I am fully supportive of Ed’s latest venture.’ The party’s deputy chief whip added that the song is ‘a great idea and not only will raise money for a great cause but will also drive more awareness about young carers who are some of the most vulnerable and sometimes most forgotten people in our communities. The whole thing should be applauded.’
His colleague, former leader and current environment spokesperson Tim Farron, agreed. He pointed out that his boss ‘won’t be the first Lib Dem leader to have a chart hit’ – a reference to the autotuned remix of Sir Nick Clegg’s ‘I’m sorry’ statement. ‘It’s a very good use of his position and his authority speaking from a carer’s perspective,’ added Farron. (I note that the Lib Dems remain too cowardly to release the infamous video of Sir Nick miming along to Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe’.)
In one sense, Morrison and Farron are right. The Lib Dems, and Sir Ed in particular, have done a genuinely good job of putting the issues around carers and the broader social care system on the agenda. However, it is hard to see that yet another stunt is a good way of continuing this serious debate. Sir Ed does have authority in this area and should therefore speak from that position. Indeed, the best part of the Lib Dems’ successful election campaign was a serious party political broadcast when the leader told his personal story, not when he was splashing around in a wet suit. They should learn from that.
Alongside all this, the Liberal Democrats are using their TikTok account to publish clips which, in recent times, can only be described as excruciating. Among other things, they involve the party leader dancing around in Christmas attire, challenging Sir Keir Starmer to matches on a football video game and mimicking that scene with cardboard signs from Love Actually. Sir Ed has also told the BBC’s Newscast that his advisers have now told him he leads the ‘Rizz Dems’. (Rizz, as I’m sure all Spectator readers know, is social media parlance for sexiness or charisma.)
Sir Ed does have a genuine sense of humour, but he is also a serious man who cares about serious things. By focusing on one, not the other, he risks becoming a joke – and that would be a terrible shame.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe these antics remain the right approach. I’m writing about them after all. However, gimmicks eventually lose their novelty value after a certain time, and carers, farmers and whoever else the Lib Dems choose to stick up for surely deserve a bit better than being used for attention-seeking stunts.
I’m not sure the public are going to tolerate this carry-on for much longer either. Recent polling from YouGov shows just 19 per cent feel ‘optimistic’, with 30 per cent feeling ‘frustrated’ and 39 per cent feeling ‘stressed’. Ongoing images of a senior politician clowning around are surely going to get on their nerves and backfire. The same pollster already measures Sir Ed’s approval at just 19 per cent, although his fame is at 77 per cent.
I don’t wish to be Scrooge. But if Sir Ed Davey and his party really want to raise important issues and bring about change, they need to get serious.
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