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Music

UK Politics: Nick Clegg Spent £8,000 Remaking Carly Rae Jepsen's "I Really Like You" Video

Instead of Tom Hanks, there was Nick Clegg. Instead of the streets of New York City, there was Gravesend, Kent.
Emma Garland
London, GB

Ah yes, British politics. Nothing ridiculous about that in 2016 I don't think.

Sure, former Prime Minister David Cameron handed over the decision on whether or not to leave the EU to the general public who are thoroughly unqualified to make an assessment on anything. Yes, the general public sided in favour of leaving Europe based on information that was later wiped from the Brexit website because it wasn't true, all the politicians who said it was resigned, lots of leave supporters went on the news and said "oops", and now we have a new Prime Minister that nobody voted for, who disagrees with what the general public voted for, and wants to trap us all on an island listening to church music and Frankie Valli forever.

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Okay, yeah, you're right, Bob Geldof did chase Nigel Farage down the Thames in a flotilla like a politically enraged Jack Sparrow, Boris "blacks have lower IQs" Johnson is the new Foreign Secretary, Michael Gove thinks he was fired for being blonde, and everyone spends our main national session of debate, Prime Minister's Questions, either booing, jeering or quoting The Smiths. Oh, no, sorry… you're right, everything is completely fucking ridiculous.

Exhibit Y in the case for the United Kingdom to renamed "Bin Island": turns out former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg spent almost £8,000 filming a shot-for-shot remake of a Carly Rae Jepsen video in a desperate attempt to go viral.

Behind the scenes images and footage (below) emerged at the time during the clip's production in the run up to the 2015 general election, but the reason Nick Clegg was seen filming a party broadcast in a camel pea coat and leather gloves was unknown until it was revealed by the Times this morning, thanks to information from an anonymous insider.

As you can see, Nick Clegg is playing the part of Tom Hanks in Jepsen's video for "I Really Like You", presumably to subtly convince people to really like the Lib Dems again like they did for a bit in 2010. Only, instead of Tom Hanks waltzing around high-fiving strangers like a boss, there is Nick Clegg holding his arm aloft in that stiffly confident way that only politicians and rappers do, and hoping nobody asks him about tuition fees. Instead of the streets of New York City, it is shot down a side-road in Gravesend, Kent. For £8k in party funds, I would assume they shot the whole thing, in which case please enjoy the image of Nick Clegg dad-dancing in the flash mob that comprises the last minute of the video. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the whole thing was quietly shelved.

Speaking to the Times, a senior Lib Dem source says that, at the end of the day's fiming, Nick Clegg thought: "Why the fuck did I do that?"

Now, let us enjoy the original one last time, for it will never be viewed in the same way again.

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