Nick Clegg's New Ad Man

Nick Clegg, in one of his first actions to reorganise the Liberal Democrats, has hired John Sharkey. Sharkey helped run the ad campaign for Saatchi and Saatchi for Thatcher's re-election in 1987. This comes only a few months after Labour hired Saatchi and Saatchi itself for their advertising at the next election.

Clegg's message is that politics is something that's sold, that's marketed. You can hire someone who was integral to selling the Tory party and keeping the SDP-Liberals out of power in 1987, and instead, they can now sell you, just like selling beer or washing powder.