The real Citizen Smith

From a pale imitation to the real thing, here's the intro from Citizen Smith:

That's how to do it Lembit!

Citizen Smith itself was a fun series, though I'm not alone in feeling the fourth season was one too many.

Oops, does that mean that I'll be first up against the wall when the revolution comes?

The fall of Lembit Öpik

Iain Dale's Diary has this wonderful cartoon up of an AV ballot paper:

(Hattip to If Lembit were on fire...)

But when did Lembit have such a fall?

There was a time when Lembit was just a figure of fun, one of those wacky characters who enliven the fringes of politics more for their antics rather than their contribution to policy. Such figures have existed in all ages. Yet somewhere along the line Lembit has turned into an object of derison if not pure hate, even within his own party. (And this started before the Liberals had their first losing campaign in his seat since the days of Disraeli.)

Maybe it's because Lembit has stopped being funny and his efforts are now just irritating. Take for example this video for his campaign to be Mayor of London:

Citizen Lem from Mancha Productions on Vimeo.

Hideous isn't it?

Even Wolfie Smith's dreams of power were more credible than this!