Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Video: Make Your Mind Up (And Vote!)



In the same week that Bucks Fizz made it to Number 1 in 1981 with their Eurovision-winning hit ‘Making Your Mind Up’, Total Politics has revived the classic … with a unique twist.

Teaming up with a host of celebrity political friends, Total Politics is using the magic of Bucks Fizz to encourage people to ‘make their mind up’ and vote on 6 May.

The video features famous political figures including Alastair Campbell, Ann Widdecombe, Nigel Farage, Chris Mullin, Lynne Featherstone, cross-party band MP4 and Anne Diamond pulling some pretty decent dance moves, all in the cause of encouraging the public to cast their vote.

Three of the four original members of Bucks Fizz also make a guest appearance ... along with a mystery new fourth member (blink and you will miss him!).

We hope this will become a real viral hit. If you have a blog, do embed it and spread the message about the importance of using your democratic right to vote.

If you are a broadcaster, high quality .mov videos suitable for broadcast are also available on request.

The video features the following political figures:
Alastair Campbell, Nadine Dorries, Phil Willis, Nigel Farage, Peter Tatchell, Ann Widdecombe, Andrew Hawkins, Angus MacNeil, Chris Mullin, Cross party band MP4 (Greg Knight, Pete Wishart, Ian Cawsey, Kevin Brennan), Lynne Featherstone, The Original Bucks Fizz (Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan, Jay Aston), Anne Diamond, Iain Dale and a group of bloggers, who included Jessica Asato, Alex Smith, Guido Fawkes, Tory Bear, Shane Greer, Mark Pack, Tory Rascal, Anthony Painter, Phil Hendren (Dizzy Thinks), Emily Nomates (Lazy Hyena), Mark Thompson (Mark Reckons) and Helen Duffett (Lib Dem Voice).

Congratulations to my colleague Amber Elliott and filmmaker Simon Eves from Plastik Digital for doing such a fabulous job so quickly!

32 comments:

Hugh Jorgen said...

Guido Fawkes in a skirt - dear God! But Lynne and Nadine looked quite foxy.

Unknown said...

Well done. I was thinking voting but now you've completely put me off the idea.

Paddy Briggs said...

Brilliant! Well done Iain and to all involved - good start to cross party co-operation post May 6th as well perhaps!

Dobson said...

well done it's great.

Enlightened Despot said...

Brilliant. Should go Platinum.

Steve said...

Ouch!

Desperate measures for desperate times?

Paul Halsall said...

Fabulous, Iain.

_ said...

About the only enjoyable moment in the election so far. Well done to all involved!

Anonymous said...

Brilliant..... no name check for the bear?

andyfree said...

Absolutely brilliant - there just isn't enough TV airtime for Cheryl baker - gorgeous!!

andyfree said...

absolutely brilliant..there just isn't enough TV for Cheryl Baker - gorgeous!!

Wrinkled Weasel said...

Brilliant and just what I needed to take the cynical sting out of the election.

Anonymous said...

Speechless, totally and utterly speechless! Not sure whether to laugh, cry or cry with laughter.

Competition idea, guess the weight difference between Guido and Tory Bear.

Benny said...

Fantastic!

Paul Halsall said...

It should make the news by the end of the day!

Michael Heaver said...

Absolute class!!

Jake Ellett said...

Haha I thought this was brilliant (...kinda).

http://www.backbenchrebels.blogspot.com

Simon Gardner said...

"Mad" Nad Dorries; I don't think so.

Ewen Bruce said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Why would anyone vote for any person even indirectly implicated in this tosh, never mind taking part? It made me want to crawl under the sofa and cringe for the rest of the day. Awful, truly, truly awful.

What were they thinking: let us minor political celebs mime to an awful song and everyone will come out and vote?

How about they stop thieving and lying and discuss issues properly?

The Grim Reaper said...

Possible answers: Iain Dale, Guido Fawkes or Tory Bear.

The question: Which one ate all the pies? ;-)

Anonymous said...

Iain,

Very jealous that you got to stand next to Jay Aston!

Anonymous said...

Absolutely awful.

I can't think of anything more likely to hand victory to 'none of the above' on May 6th.

It's amazing how pious certain organisations get about voting, as if the response of not voting, (when politicians have failed so often and so grotesquely) was in some way illogical or illigetimate.

What next - fines and prison for non-voters?

Unknown said...

What a load of self-indulgent codswallop. All participants should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

ukipwebmaster said...

You move well Iain........

Sean said...

To my surprise, that was very good indeed. (I had felt revolted at seeing Phil Woollas and Alistair Campbell).

Blogged. Thank you.

kasou said...

Great. Cheered me up no end. Maybe all is not lost despite 'Browns Britain', good to see you guys still have humour.

skids said...

Excellent stuff! Well done to all.

dazmando said...

Best music video ever!

Ewen Bruce said...

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Anonymous said...

Bit of a late response, but I absolutely loved this video on several levels!

We all have different political views and battle each other, but it was great to see such a broad spectrum unite in promoting the importance of voting, on which we can all surely agree. I even had a sudden twinge of love for Alistair Campbell for taking part!

For the same reason I've been delighted to see the way the BBC, which I'm usually quite happy to malign, make real efforts to engage children and first-time voters in the process. One can hardly castigate it for bias when one of their young panellists declares David Cameron to be the best, "He just had this way of enrapturing the audience, I think we were all putty in his hands listening to him speak." (Clip on Daily Politics website). It was also interesting that David Cameron bothered to turn up for that particular event, was unafraid to face the uninhibited questioning of youngsters - Labour sent Alan Johnson and LibDems sent Lembit Opik.

Voting is SO important, every single vote can make a difference, and that is exactly what we will not get in Nick Clegg's happy vision of a European superstate, already proved completely undemocratic, or even his relentless pursuit of STV.

To get back to my original point of loving the video - how successful has it been? Part of the reason I loved it was I recognised nearly everyone taking part (even your own coy appearance!). I haven't seen it mentioned in many places other than my usual stamping grounds, which are admittedly probably very limited. Has it gained the traction it deserves?

Paul Halsall said...

Lynne does look amazing in this vid, even if the Daily Mail cited it as "controversial".