Politics

The Liberal Democrats burst a giant ‘Boris bubble’ on live television and it was wonderfully cringe

The Liberal Democrats burst a giant ‘Boris bubble’ on live television and it was wonderfully cringe

The Liberal Democrats’ victory in the North Shropshire-by-election has sent shockwaves through the political establishment in the UK by toppling a Tory safe seat and giving Boris Johnson more to worry about.

And it didn’t take long for the excitement to turn into a wonderfully light-hearted cringe-fest as the Lib Dems wheeled out their latest stunt.

The newly-elected MP for the Midlands constituency Helen Morgan appeared on live TV along with former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron and deputy leader Daisy Cooper to celebrate the landmark win in Oswestry by literally bursting a big blue “Boris bubble”.

Brandishing a large yellow pin, Morgan stabbed at the ballon that was being held by Farron with some vigour, much to the delight of her supporters behind her who all cheered when the inflatable went pop.

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

However, the scene didn’t exactly encourage jubilations from onlookers who didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at how cringe it was, with more than one comparison being made to The Thick of It.

There were also some concerns about how big the pin was and how closely Farron avoided a nasty injury on live television.

All things considered, this is hardly the first or the last time that the Lib Dems will perform a big gimmick stunt of this nature – you could kind of say that it is now their gimmick and definitely keeps them in the headlines and on television.

Speaking afterwards, Farron said: “Millions of people have woken up this morning feeling a bit of light has broken into the darkness” thanks to the shock result.

“It turns out that if you are incompetent, it turns out if you tell lies, it turns out that if you take the people for granted, there is a price to pay. Democracy and justice is alive and well in Britain and the people of North Shropshire have spoken for the whole of Britain.”

The Conversation (0)