John Cleese SDP/Liberal Alliance political broadcast 1987

[Tokyorosebiz]

Forget Phone Hacking Please check out THE PARTY OF SLEAZE by Tokyo Rose it's a laugh and one day it may come true.

[Durbs75]

It wouldn't have killed him to have a shave, would it?

[ChristoMafesto]

lol this is brilliant!

[IMMACUTMAN]

It was a shame they continued See-Saw politics anyway only up until recently.

[Regenmacher175]

john cleese for Prime Minister.

[henrythesteinberg]

A mad-cap 60's comedian tries his luck at psychoanalysis.

[Runrome]

and what has centrist politics brought us(Blair) war privtisation and an unfair Britain

[onesy1]

"moderates" = bleeding heart liberal capitalists YAWN

[paolocabling]

did mr. cleese elected nick clegg and all libdems?

[TurboSpaghettiRobot]

This is the kind of rhetoric the Tea Parties are employing: We need to take back our country by force or there'll be a war!

It's pretty funny that this has been the American status quo for political discourse for 200 years

[FightMarxism]

@TurboSpaghettiRobot The party in the UK that most closely represents the views of the Tea Party is The UK Independence Party (UKIP).

[wolfson109]

@FightMarxism I'm not quite sure where you get that from. The Tea Party movement is a religious extremism movement which wants to ban ALL public spending except for the military. Whereas UKIP is, while right wing, singularly secular and most interested in Britain leaving the EU. An opinion obviously shared by a large number of British people considering that we have UKIP representatives in the European Parliament.

[FightMarxism]

@wolfson109 No, the Tea Party is a libertarian movement inspired by Ron Paul. There is some social conservatism because the republican party has tried to hijack it for themselves but for the most part it's about getting back to a small government limited to the confines of the U.S. Constitution. I was under the impression that the UKIP was trying to restore traditional British conservatism and free markets in a similar way. Obviously I could be wrong, my knowledge of the party comes from

[FightMarxism]

what I can find online. Is there a party in England that wants to get away from socialism, supports Austrian economics, and a limited government?

[bapyou]

@FightMarxism "it's about getting back to a small government limited to the confines of the U.S. Constitution."

Oh shut up, you stupid fucking whore. The fucking whores in the tea party and the fucking whores in the Republican Party of Whores are not about small government at all, you fucking whore. Ronald Reagan GREW government, you stupid fucking whore. Tell the truth, you stupid fucking whore: Small government just means $ for big business. That is all there is to it, you fucking whore.

[FightMarxism]

@bapyou Well, in the face of such obvious intelligence I have to concede, Ronald Reagan wasn't a libertarian. The truth about big business is that they tend to support the democratic party. Take a look at the campaign contributions for Obama vs McCain in the 2008 elections.

[bapyou]

@FightMarxism "The truth about big business is that they tend to support the democratic party."

Certainly, and this means what? That "libertarians" aren't supporters of big buisiness & capitalism? When it comes down to it, rather than stand with working pople in their struggles against capital, you whores would suck the cock of the wealthy any day of the week.

You have the most moronic username I've yet come across on You Tube. Karl Marx had 20X the intellect of a Von Mises or Hayek.

[FightMarxism]

@bapyou Libertarians don't support big business. Libertarians support free market capitalism free from as much government intervention as possible. Democrats & republicans support big business by caving to lobbyists to impose government intervention in favor of their company. Historically nobody supports favoritism more than the democratic party. No economist has ever been more wrong Karl Marx.

[FightMarxism]

Marx should've been the laughingstock of the 20th century but instead people saw in his work a method for conquering governments & seizing power for themselves and as a result tens of millions died.

[irishgodfatherchris]

@FightMarxism Marxism did not do that people did that. Every left wing party in the world can trace their origin back to Marx, some have done very well, some have not, I could say the same with the Conservatives or Liberals (meaning centre because that's what Liberals actually stand for)

[ajs41]

You can watch the 1987 election night programme on my channel.

[Nerrt45]

Rule No.1 - "No other party's ideas are any good" - Wow it's eerie how much 1987 British politics were a lot of 2010 American politics!

It's the first I've EVER seen a celebrity purposely shrill for a political party without coming across as an uppity jerk. Figures it'd be John Cleese to have the talent to pull that off...

[FightMarxism]

@Nerrt45 That rule applies to all political parties at all times.

[gregreman]

I wonder if 36K people watched this when it was on TV in 1987?

[karuspery]

Google Common Purpose by Brian gerrish

[Irtidad]

That's not just the flag of the PLO, but is the flag of all the Palestinian people, and was based on the flag of the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in WW1.

[suitov]

If only. :(

[FranciscoCojuanco]

Even is this is a political ad, it's pretty prescient...

[RogetKing]

I don't get it. What flag was flown from the Hammersmith Town Hall?

[redhexagon]

The red flag was flying over Hammersmith Town Hall. Many of the people watching this on TV probably already knew that. The old Labour song "The Red Flag" had a few notes played after Cleese said that.

[lotuselisel]

holy crap...Slouching Towards Gomorrah, Commen Sense, Idiocracy way ahead of the time...

[SWiNETHEA]

Extraordinary. I don't support the Liberals, and I certainly wouldn't have supported the SDP. But he seems so reasonable and sincere. Why CAN'T reasonableness reign? Bless him.

[autofreak7]

this is a little bit hypocritical I think. He goes on about agression and pointing at enemies, but in fact this whole commercial doesn't do anything else than taking it out on everyone who isn't an Alliance-man/woman.

[CountFruFru]

Fucking brilliant!

[Erech01]

I wonder if John Cleese still votes Lib Dem

[RationalResponsive]

Don't be absurd! The Liberal Democrats are just like the other parties these days; all spin, no substance.

[angryyld]

Lol @ the tory/labour dinosaurs at the start! missed that first time!

[Erech01]

Lol, i didnt notice that:P until you said it.

[merdufer]

too witty and satirical to be effective mass propaganda

[angryyld]

I agree - and as he says right at the start, you need to watch it all to come away with a good impression - not good if you switch off in the first 5 minutes...

[Supermercado]

Then vote Conservative

[Retrieverman1]

This party sounds to the left of the current Labour Party.

[Supermercado]

Everyone's to the left of the current Labour Party.

[theadjectiveform]

@Retrieverman1 At least someone is.

[LunarEcli]

@Retrieverman1 So is Hitler these days.

[lawrence142002]

@Retrieverman1

It is left of Labour today. However, Labour had swung sharply left when Michael Foot had been elected Party Leader and stayed to the left under Neil Kinnock.

[ajuk1]

@Retrieverman1 Very, or at least they were until 6 months ago.

[Retrieverman1]

We need PR in the US, but for a different reason.

[Watermark0n]

They didn't get annihilated. They lost 2% of the vote and 1 seat in the 1987 election, and then became the liberal democrats. Where did you get that they stopped existing from?

[richardrichard07]

It really is the perfect compromise between right and left. I say the politics of union and co operation not confrontation! Moderation really is a virtue, long live middle of the road centrism!

[lelvish1]

When people ask me why I'm a Liberal Democrat I simply show them this video! lol

[MandysEvilTwin]

Yeah it's great, especially the "enemies" bit

[spittingimage4005]

john clles and the rest of the pythons sadly made less of an inpact in the 80's

[fericire7]

ASOME!!! nice speech, though general public never had the chance to taste SPD, either being with their heads stuck up their asses, or in other ppl's asses, and the ones that did get some spare time for a breather were too busy ass-kissing each other :P

[onlineliberalism]

has Cleese got a beard?

or is my video funny???

[mustainestheone]

It's such a shame that this ended up being the crock of shit that is the Liberal Democrats. Seriously, the policies I've seen in this broadcast are very much in line with my thinking, it's so sad they became what they are today.

[firatealt]

When, such as right now, extremes of cruelty, poverty and misery exist all around you, moderation is rather hard to sustain. I appretiate the pleas for understanding one-another. Yet constant "understanding" our blood-sucker and murderer rulers "is not gonna replace one roman soldier".

[opinionhead444]

This is a great video. I swear many people like the two-party system because it is easy to manipulate by a few and the system is guaranteed to be gridlocked forever. This is likely why folks don't like third parties. Change is hard, recalcitrance and apathy are easy.

[Supermercado]

Whether you agree with or not it's good to see that somebody used humor in an election campaign for once.

[rabbitandcrow]

Is that Dame (pre-Dame) Judi Dench reading off the phone number and address at the end??

[poshknacker]

by jinkers i think you have it watkins!

sounds loike Kwazy Judi alright!

[Filby]

Well-said by Cleese. Were I British I probably wouldn't vote Lib Dem as I'm pretty "hard-left," but I strongly agree that respect for people with different political views is a must and sadly lacking worldwide.

[Durbs75]

I hate PR. It's for people who can't make up their minds. Mind you, old Gord will introduce it like a shot if he thinks he's going to lose the next election.

[hux2000]

"The Alliance got annihalated in the '87 election"

Depends entirely on whether you look at the popular vote or the number of seats. I wouldn't regard 22.6% of the vote as being "annihilated" by any stretch and the fact that they only won 3.4% of the seats simply illustrates how unrepresentative the British electoral system was (and still is).

(On a side note, for what it's worth I'm not a Lib/Dem supporter and never have been, at least not at the national level.)

[poshknacker]

The only reason the sdp got trounced during the 87 election is because maggies yuppie quick buck mania had taken over and manna was the god most worshiped.

If the sdp were around today i suspect it would do somewhat better.

There is everything right and nothing wrong with a healthy mix of left and right. Look at Ireland over the last 15 years for proof.

[bripat22]

no, the Labour Party proved more resilient then the SDP thought it was going to be , to their cost and the country by splitting the left of centre vote

[RebelRadius]

John Cleese should keep to comedy.

His political opinions are seriously flawed.

Until I saw this video, I always thought of Cleese as being an intelligent fellow. My estimation of this man has taken a severe dive.

[Brimstone52]

So because John Cleese has a different opinion to you he suddenly becomes stupid?

It's an interesting point of view, but not one likely to make you too many friends.

[andy11120]

I was with them all they way until they said "write to Dr David Owen"

[Eliothampdenturner]

Even though I am a Tory, I must say that this was a highly entertaining political broadcast.

[barlam]

Proportional Representation sounds good in theory but in reality is no good. It didnt work for Germany. The problem is groups with fundamental differences must join forces to gain majority, thus problems arise when the main parties have to compromise and work together. Also a lot of the decisions can be disjointed as there is no set plan and all decisions are made independently from each other and therefore do not work as efficiently than if were made to fit in with the other schemes in place

[hux2000]

"Proportional Representation sounds good in theory but in reality is no good. It didnt work for Germany."

You mean the Germany that has risen from destruction to the richest country in Europe and the third richest in the world? Seems like PR has worked out pretty well for them, I'd say.

[barlam]

Well it fucked them up during their darker days

[poshknacker]

so you are saying that my countries PR system is no good??

lots of love

Ireland (PR and proudly sdp in ethos and government)

[RevSyd]

And, of course, moderates.

[nitzwalsh86]

Good on you RevSyd! You were paying attention!

[clat1]

I resent this video

[valland55]

that would have been good in our recent election here in OZ. All the ads from both sides were negative and used scare tactics. Cleese is my hero.

[minispazzolino]

Sounding familiarly like New Labour, anyone?

The Alliance spoke a lot of sense in a period with lots of people talking crap, but they did help keep Labour out for 2 elections, and whatever crap they were talking, surely it can't have been worse than the Tories' crap - 3m unemployed, privatisation, no such thing as society, etc.

[hifimonkeykong]

You can't blame the alliance any more than you can blame labour for keeping the tories in power

[saxonhaste]

lol well then thay wand to meet in the middle and

Canada falls apart beaus thay do just that extremism all the way

[nitzwalsh86]

Canada, as a Canadian, I can say, works in practice, but doesn't work in theory.

[lelvish1]

Ha. I've never seen this before! People ask me why Im a Liberal Democrat- all I need to do from now on is show them this video!

[chrish12345]

hes brill lol he's less funni now he aint the prime minister

[admiralnovia]

Between this and the "Upper Class Twit of the Year" sketch, its no wonder Cleese never received a knighthood! ;-)

[ninthwave]

The SDP were socialists who appeared 'moderate' when they believed this could get them their ministerial salaries back. Remember Shirley Williams on the Grunwick picket line.

[bripat22]

Shirley was and is , a women of principle and good social democratic commitment. Her one mistake was leaving Labour.

[ajuk1]

The Alliance didn't die they Merged to form the Lib Dems.

[GhettoHoodlums1]

dis guys soo clever he made me wish dis party was REAL is seems less masoned out den other partys!!!!!!

[babathespider515]

It all sounded good to me up until the end. PR is what killed them.

[hellpartyboy2008]

on enemies of the left, he forgot to mention religious fundamentalists

[kbfeff]

Very funny, and true. SDP had great leaders - Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, Bill Rodgers, David Owen -- great minds who bravely changed modern British politics by forcing Labour to move to the centre. Too bad they had to leave the Labour to force the change. Shirley (now Baroness) Williams would have made a brilliant PM.

[alexgmcm]

Hitler was appointed, and Mussolini used violence. Proportional Representation is far better than first past the post. It might not be perfect but it is the least-worst system, the same reasoning used for democracy as a whole.

[Cartenstat]

I prefer this way above the system existing in U.K and U.S., where actually this winner-takes-it-all approach leaves a part of the people without representation on national level, which isn't true democracism.

[Cartenstat]

Here in Belgium, proportianal representation exists. In parlement, we have got 11 parties, coming from 2 culturally seperated regions.

Instead of radical changing policies every turn, this system, where alliances and coöperation between parties are necessary, causes a sort of centrists contnuing policy, as each alliance-party has to agree with it.

[alanheath]

PR - contrary to what John is saying here - does lead to extremism. I will not go on about how Hitler and Mussolini came to power because no doubt you will say that was an extreme situation. But look at Israel's or Italy's inability to form sensible govenrments over many years. First past the post is fairer because the government is supported by around 40% of those voting whereas PR is supported by maybe 5 - 10%.

[rexStuartus]

FPTP in the UK results in a gov't supported by less than 40% on many occasions. Labour presently has a huge undemocratic majority. PR requires at least 50% for a majority gov't. Coalitions can get that kind of support.

[alanheath]

They can only get that kind of support by allowing tiny minority parties a say much larger than their vote deserves. The most extreme example was how Mussolini seized power using this system. However look at how Israel cannot get peace because of tiny religious groups. I think it is better to have a govt. with 40% of the vote than one with 4%!

ps I did not vote Labour but they won fair and square and that is I believe democracy!

[alanheath]

Sorry rex, the next time I reply to a comment which was a reply to my comment, I will read what I wrote earlier and try to say something original and not repeat myself. I have more than 200 videos here and there was a lot of comments after I had been away for some time!

[rexStuartus]

Labour didn't win fair and square. They got less than half of the vote!

[ajuk1]

If we had PR, then Labour would have lots area seats in but the Liberals would have lots of additional member seats, so many that there would be a hung parliament ATM, Labour or the LDs would need over 50% of the vote to get a majority.

[rexStuartus]

Depends on the system. You're assuming AMS?

Under STV (Lib Dem choice) there'd still be a hung Parliament, though probably (and interestingly) slightly fewer Lib Dem seats.

[ajuk1]

Surley STV would be a disaster for the tories as most Liberal Supporters would put Labour as their second choice and visa versa?

[rexStuartus]

I've seen stats which show that (I think - the recollection is dim) both Labour and Tory voters would, predominantly put Lib Dems second. Lib Dems and Labour would put Greens third; Tories, UKIP. Or something like that.

[donotswallow]

third parties don't work in the U.S. as we do not have proportional representation. They are however effective in siphoning off votes from the Dem. and rep. parties.

Had the third parties not endorsed their respective candidates, Al Gore would have won in 2000, and George H.W. would have won in 1993.

[TitanicWarrior]

You really need proportional representation cus your current system only really allows 2 parties, which is not that much of a democracy at all.

[Makkabee1854]

It's a tradeoff. Proportional representation means that each party gets a percentage of seats in the legislature proportional to its vote, but the party gets to pick the people who fill its quota of seats. This reduces the freedom of action of elected officials because if they buck the party they won't get renominated. Conservative Democrats like Robert Byrd and liberal Republicans like Lincoln Chaffee can't survive such a system.

[rexStuartus]

Only one kind of PR uses quotas which parties choose candidates to fill - closed list PR. Open list, AMS, STV, AV+ - there are loads of others.

[chrish12345]

the most crackers people are the sanest, this is proof - he's a nut but knows how weird others are

[JosephNScott]

"he's a nut but knows how weird others are" He's not a nut at all. He's using irony.

[chrish12345]

he is a nut actually

[JosephNScott]

"he is a nut actually" Seriously, how?

[chrish12345]

mind your own business

[chrish12345]

maniac but funny

[westben2002]

man....this mirrors american politics....i wish america had a party like this. I'd like to vote for this party

[MacrossSD]

Maybe someone ought to get that same message across to the Dems and Repubs in this country. Extremism in the defense of ANYTHING is no virtue.

[richmetcalf]

Ha! What you Americans need to realise is that you don't have Left and Right, you just have Right and Even-Further-Right. You're better off just going as far left as you can and hope that you eventually end up in the Centre.

[RachelSummers79]

This is very true, unfortunately.

[LeiMagnus]

It's become like that here.

[EdWrite]

The Alliance was almost as farcical as Fawlty Towers.

[westphalianprinz]

Isn't this alliance the same thing as the Liberal Democrats?

[MrBronson66]

Yeah - bit of chopping and changing, but they're essentially the same party. The politics are still the same - except that Labour's massive lurch to the right means the LibDems are now the furthest left of the major parties, and this campaign wouldn't work.

[westphalianprinz]

I've noticed that Labour is so far to the right that Cameron is trying to out-left them. I think it's funny that Labour still says its socialist, even though it's obviously not.

[MrBronson66]

The other Pythons took the piss out of Cleese for this every time they saw him afterwards. They were all solid old-Labour lefties, and thought JC was going soft in his old age, sliding into cosy centrism. Which he sort of was, really.

[westphalianprinz]

I always thought that it was odd that Cleese was the centrist while all the others were lefties. I'm an American who loves British politics, is the SDP/Liberal alliance the same thing as the Liberal Democrats?

[foxh8er]

almost.... check wiki

[TitanicWarrior]

Lol, its funny cus Labour is now a centre-left, whilst Lib Dems are a leftist party!

[TheOriginalNonEmo]

Pfft left ... LEFT ... no no no labour haven't been anythign left since oh 1923 ... i think that was the year ramsay mcdonald betrayed th eleft :@

[alanheath]

... and the SDP are a distanc memory. Although they did change the face of British politics by forcing Labour to reform. So theirs was a great achievement.

[Elektra25970]

Man, why can't we have anything like this in America. Shame. If John Cleese had come on my television and told me to vote, I'd have done it. (Not only for that fact that John Cleese is on my television, but for the fact that he makes very good points.)

[michtyme3]

Thanks for the info about the 87 election Thibault, though I should point out I was an Alliance supporter myself. It's not completely true to say the two parties united, as David Owen continued the SDP on his own. The fact is that the 87 results were a massive dissapointment, a disappointment directly responsible for the creation of the Liberal Democrats. I say that with regret as IMHO they undoubtedly spoke the most sense at the time.

[Halfdan1]

This man has deconstructed and preached every microbe, every last detail of evil thought and behaviour and injected the funniest, most twisted humour into it. He's going to kill me one day with a heart attack from laughing so damned hard! Thanks for sharing this one.

[ThibaultJeakings]

Erm... for the person that put this video up, the Alliance didn't get annihalated in the election, it dropped in vote share by 3% from over 25% to over 22% and lost 1 seat (going from 23 to 22 I think). After the election it disbanded because the SDP and Liberals united to become the Liberal Democrats, so it's not really true to say they split up.

[yorksingingsensation]

wow its just a shame they didnt get to power. he makes a very genuine point that even if the conservatives agree with the labour party (or vice versa) they will still argue against them.

[yorksingingsensation]

can i also ask that since watching this video last am i the only one that cat watch past the first 7 seconds where the woman has announced the forthcoming broadcast? has it been removed for politcal reasons?

[ArcturusGX]

Nope, they'll still do that. John Cleese should do something similar with regards to religious extremism. Granted it'll probably never see the light of day and John Cleese will almost certainly never see this so... kinda hit a brick wall there. STILL! Good show and awful shame there's no Liberal Alliance. Well, there's the Lib Dems. Wait a tick, I'm in Ireland - still! Good going by John Cleese.

[yorksingingsensation]

not being a gullable moron or anything but was that a genuine political broadcast?

[po8crg]

Yes, it was a genuine party political broadcast in 1987.

[fogchicken]

"the best thing about having enimies is that you can pretend that all the badness in the whole world is in your enimies, and all the goodness in the whole world.. is in you!"

rofl love that expression he does.

thanks for uploading :P