Background to “I agree with Nick”: In our first televised election debate, our prime minister at the time, Gordon Brown (the leader of the opposing Labour party), kept on agreeing with the leader of the Lib Dems, Nick Clegg. Thus, “I agree with Nick” became a catchphrase.

Being a senior figure in a political party is equivalent to being an A-List celebrity. EVERYONE wants to take a photo with you /shake your hand/fawn over you, from people campaigning to be the next member of parliament (and need a photo for their campaign material) to those who just want a photo for the lulz*.

As I mentioned before, in the youth and student branch of the Liberal Democrats, Liberal Youth, elections are currently taking place to elect the new executive. Members of Liberal Youth are meant to vote for the people they want based on the manifestos shown at this handy site. Now, I made my choices based on the content in these manifestos**, what people were promising vs. what they could actually deliver, etc, but what was a big turnoff for me was people trying to pretend that senior politicians had endorsed them.

More specifically, I’m talking about this (and on a lesser scale, this). Just because you managed to get a photo next to him does not give you the right to say “Nick agrees with me.” Nick Clegg takes photos with many people, and won’t remember most of the people he’s shared photos with (he’s only human, after all).
I don’t care if you were just taking the piss, or if you were just trying to liven your manifesto up with a photo, but I consider it false advertising, unless you can prove that you specifically walked up to him and gave him all your policies as a candidate for a general executive member of Liberal Youth and got his express permission to use his image in that way.
And, considering what a busy man he is (note my failure to try and get a picture of him whilst he was in the same room as me), this scenario occuring is highly unlikely.

If I ever got a photo with someone important in the Lib Dems, I could technically put anything I liked as a slogan, as I would own the rights to that picture. But I wouldn’t. Because I highly doubt the person I took the photo with would agree to support “OMG LET TASERS BECOME LEGAL IN THE UK!!!!1111!!!!”

I understand prospective parliamentary candidates needing a photo with a senior member of the party  - to show that they’re united/actually a member of the party – for campaign material, blah blah blah, but I don’t see the point in using them to advertise people in internal elections, when we already know you’re on the right party to be running for that position. And unless it’s for a leadership position within the federal party, isn’t everyone meant to remain neutral about who they would vote for?

When it comes to Liberal Youth elections…

You’re a bloody youth politician. Like it or not, but the ‘grown-ups’ don’t take you seriously right now. Write a decent manifesto, telling your electorate what you can and cannot offer. Don’t rely on celebrity endorsements, and don’t try to insinuate that senior people have agreed with everything you’ve said, because that just makes you look like a fool.

Or, at the very least, will make me decide to vote for someone else.

*I will hunt down Nick Clegg eventually, get a photo and act like his best buddy. Because I’m cool like that.
** Grammar and spelling may have played a part in my decision as well, as stupid as it may sound. If you can’t be bothered to use spellcheck and/or proofread before you send off something for the last time, then it shows me that you can be careless.