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  1. Spotlight on Policy
  2. Elections
3 May 2010updated 27 Sep 2015 2:21am

All hail the Lib Dem flash mob!

Election 2010: Guffwatch!

By Sophie Elmhirst

Just when you thought the election couldn’t get any more thrilling and unpredictable, here comes the Lib Dem flash mob in Trafalgar Square. Organised for 3pm today, here are the instructions on Facebook:

15:00 — Wear yellow, but cover it. Arrive at the square.

15:05 — One person will shout “I agree with Nick!” REALLY LOUD and tear off their jacket to reveal their yellow clothing. Another person will join in. And another and another, until we are all chanting “I agree with Nick!”

Balloons will be handed out for you to blow up afterwards and stickers should be available.

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15:25 — Crowd disperses, taking any litter with it so as not to give the tabloids something to moan about.

Where to begin. I love the secret yellow-wearing, the jacket-tearing, the chanting. And not just any chanting. REALLY LOUD chanting.

But the best bit of all is the final missive — the litter removal. After all that disguise and reveal and shouting and balloons, the thought of hundreds of people then gently pottering about picking up crisp packets rather takes the edge off the whole enterprise. So polite!

Surely this is a revolution we’re talking about — you should be painting the National Gallery yellow and putting a Nick Clegg mask on Nelson’s column. I can’t believe any French revolutionaries worried about the mess they were creating on the barricades.

Thank God there are stickers. That’ll give the tabloids something to moan about, if nothing else.

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