He may be an atheist, but is he a druggy? important questions in British politics...

A beauty from my paper today, which I don't think is intentionally funny but none the less had me nearly in stitches. Its only the first half of the first paragraph of the story - I didn't really read the rest as I normally find the Lib Dems about as interesting as choosing wallpaper.

A little background for my readers from outside the UK. There exists in British politics a third party, called the Liberal Democrats, whose sole electoral function appears to be to mop up voters who are too pissed off with the two major parties to vote for either of them. In local government they are a real political force, however in the national parliament they are something of a joke, and consequently they can produce policies to the left, or right, of either of the main parties (both of whom are treading on each other's toes in the centre ground at present) with what can charitably be called complete opportunism.

Until last year they had a witty, fairly charismatic leader called Charles Kennedy, who they had to get rid of because he was slightly too fond of his drink, which is no longer deemed acceptable in today's squeeky clean world of politics (hahahaha).

They then had a leader who was fairly competent but had as much charisma as a damp tea-towel. He was also over 60, which is no longer deemed acceptable in today's squeeky clean world of A level politicians, as it is well known by marketing agencies up and down the land that 'young people' are 'turned off' politics by its image of 'old people telling them what to do', and are more likely therefore to vote for a dashingly handsome young-hip-cool-with-it politician.

No, I don't know any either, but never mind, all this is leading us away from my main topic, which is this.

They elected a new leader, who isn't grey so must be a step in the right direction for a young, cool, hip party like the Lib Dems. This new leader, who's name is Nick Clegg, has been quoted as saying that he doesn't believe in God.

Well, passionate atheist as I am, it'll take more than that to make me vote Lib Dem. In fact I think it would take a gun pressed against my head to vote Lib Dem, but that, once again, is beside the point.

My newspaper carries an article entitled "Nick Clegg is a believer ...in families, not God"

Other, more established blogs have discussed the things he said on the topic of religion, so I won't repeat them here - suffice to say its not particularly inspiring stuff.

I just want you to laugh along with me at this, the opening paragraph...

"Nick Clegg, the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, declared yesterday that he did not believe in God but refused to say whether he had taken drugs."

I'm sure its not supposed to be funny, but by [any] god [you like] it made me laugh. No doubt there is no attempt made here to link the two, but wouldn't it be great it there was?

I can't help imagining a scenario:

[Right wing]Interviewer:
-'So Mr Clegg, do you believe in God?'

Clegg:
-'No.'

Interviewer:
-'What?! are you on drugs?'

Fantastic.