Ming: Not out-of-touch, but can't quite count

God knows why he tried it. Perhaps he's afraid that he comes across as a man waiting perpetually to be called to a starring role in a big-screen remake of The Ghosts of Motley Hall, Ming Campbell decided to drop a reference to a popular music combo while attemtping to stir his audience up at the Lib Dem conference in Brighton:

Asked by Market Harborough activist Chandila Fernando how he intended to "sex up his image", Sir Menzies referred to Chancellor Gordon Brown's claim earlier this year that he listened to the Arctic Monkeys on his iPod in the morning.

Sir Menzies told the conference: "I know where the Arctic Monkeys come from. I know they have sold more records than The Beatles.

"But the idea as was reported by the Chancellor of the Exchequer that I am going to turn off the Today programme and turn on the Arctic Monkeys does seem to be a little remote."

Interestingly, Ming didn't bother to prove his claim that he knew where the band came from - although, to be fair, if The Sun's Victoria Newton doesn't know, there's no reason why Campbell should.

On the suggestion that a band who are so young they don't remember a time before video recorders have - in a year - outsold the biggest band the world has yet seen, though, there's no mercy for him. Channel 4 News' Factcheck crunches the numbers for him, but does throw him a small lifejacket:

It may be churlish to analyse such an off-the-cuff gaffe, if Sir Menzies meant the Arctic Monkeys had sold more records than the Beatles of their debut album in the the first month , he may have been onto something.

However he would do well to take some of his own advice. After the Arctic Monkeys comment, he said: "The British public is pretty damn good at seeing through artificiality. "I am what I am ... and I sure ain't gonna change."

Such a use of "ain't" may have given him the patina of street credibility, however it seems his knowledge of modern music has been found wanting.

But then... that's as it should be, surely? Frankly, if you bumped in Campbell down the front of a Tapes N Tapes gig, something would be wrong. Indeed, even the back row of the upper circle at a performance of Die Fledermaus would look a little too cutting edge for him.

music lib dems menzies campbell ming arctic monkeys the beatles