Well that was a bit odd. Every Wednesday on my LBC programme we have an hour at 9pm called the LBC Parliament. Three politicos come into the studio and we talk about the political stories of the week. Tonight we booked Labour blogger Hopi Sen, Tory MP Nick de Bois and LibDem aspirant London mayoral candidate Lembit Opik. Bear in mind that if you're hoping to become London mayor, an hour on London's premier radio station provides you with quite a good audience to win over.We had several people email and text in to question how serious Lembit was about this. They questioned his apparently insatiable desire to be a celebrity. Lembit made a passionate plea to be taken seriously and explained why people should do just that. He said how committed he was on important issues ... and then half way through the hour he upped and left to go to a nearby comedy club rather than talk about them. Admittedly he had a good excuse - Stephen Pound MP was making his standup debut - but I'm afraid LBC listeners were less than impressed. By doing what he did he just confirmed people's prejudices that he just isn't serious.
Lembit was kind enough to phone in at the end of the programme to hand the phone to Stephen Pound who in his own inimitable fashion described how during his stand up routine he called Michael Gove a c***. Well I'll bet that had them rolling in the aisles.
I like Lembit, I really do, and I really wish him well. But if he wants to run for a serious office he's got to play the part. He's a very funny guy, but he needs to learn that he can do 'funny' or he can do serious politics. He can't do both. He might recall that when a certain Boris Johnson realised that, he went on to win the mayoralty. He still remained himself, but he adapted his character to the campaign he was running. He compromised. Lembit shows no sign of doing that and it will take a very persuasive campaign manager to make him do so.
But in the meantime, all this will be grist to the mill of the LibDems who want 'anyone but Lembit'.
