Just before the London mayoral election, the Independent had enthusiastically profiled the Green party candidate, Ms Siân Berry. Ms Berry days later went on to capture all of 77,000 first preference votes, an electoral achievement that put her in terms of support only slightly ahead of the British National Party candidate, who received almost 70,000. Given that the Indy didn’t provide a similar platform to that BNP candidate, Ms Berry doesn’t seem to have greatly benefited from the Indy’s, shall we say, being smitten by her.

Knowing such, one might think most politicians wouldn’t be chasing after an Indy profile, or they would have to be truly desperate to accept one. So another of the second-tier must either not realize it won’t help much, if at all, or he’s actually braver than anyone appreciates. For the other day Liberal Democratic leader Nick Clegg went further, writing in the Independent himself. It is a piece which the paper introduced by telling us:

…Reflecting on his first five months as Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg reckons it’s time for change…

No, he’s not thinking of resigning. Rather, Mr Clegg’s talking of change in politics, owing to how he feels “politics is in deep trouble.” “Democracy”, as Mr Clegg’s piece is groundbreakingly entitled, is “a great idea” — a great idea of which, clearly, none of us had had any idea previously. Or, in other words, make change? “Yes. We. Can.”

Perhaps Mr Clegg targeted Independent readers because they haven’t yet appreciated democracy’s full potential? After all, as the Indy’s idealistic Mary Dejevsky had pointed out back in January, “Maybe we set too much store by democracy.” Okay, yes, she meant abroad. Still, given that Indy readers are also probably among the people most likely to know of and agree with Mr Clegg, one wonders if his sharing his stirring view in the Indy was really worth the effort, for the very same day we were also told:

…People have not yet formed a clear view about Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader. By a two-to- one margin (22 per cent to 11 per cent) they believe he is an asset rather than a liability to his party, but 33 per cent say he is “neither” and 34 per cent say they do not know…

As we see, had he resigned it might not have been as if many would notice. Thus Mr Clegg seems another party leader who well needs introducing, which may explain his willingness to reach out to Independent readers. Yet when desiring to make “change”, most would consider a good place to begin is by making yourself known as widely as possible: essentially, his piece belonged in the Mail, or in the Telegraph. For not only do we already know how much those Tories readers despise democracy, but they are far more likely not to know much, if anything, about Mr Clegg.

Regardless, that above polling on the non-knowledge of Mr Clegg comes to us in a piece on today’s by-election in Crewe. That race, as we know, has been dominated by “class warfare” — particularly built around the argument that the Conservative candidate is too inherited money and well-to-do to represent the distinct. It is an assertion that might have some resonance . . . well, it might if it weren’t coming from the Labour candidate whose own Labour heritage is several generations deep, whose own mother represented the area until her death, and who owns a £850,000 country home 175 miles away from the district.

So with class troubles abounding these days — one could say “class is the last refuge of the Labour scoundrel” — it is good that interviewed the very same day by the paper was the BBC’s Gavin Esler, who helpfully informed us in the Indy’s “fill in the blank” Q & A:

If I weren’t talking to you right now I’d be…

Talking to Penelope Cruz. She’s holding on the other line.

Life has moved on for Mr Esler, clearly. So has “class”. For moments later he points out also that:

A common misconception of me is…

That I must be posh. I spent the first three years of my life with my parents, grandmother and two aunties in a tiny council house in Glasgow.

Not “posh” himself? Ms Cruz, we may also recall, is currently in the news owing to Cannes. Now, this blog is not “Midsomer Murders“, but it can spot attempted deception when it sees it.

Especially, when it is sloppy. As in trying to keep up a phony accent, Mr Esler slipped up there and accidently let his true origins out of the Gucci bag. For had he admitted instead to keeping Kerry Katona on hold, that would have far more convincingly upheld his claim to “non-posh” authenticity:

I say old pal, so one believes one is posh? Do you dream of finding your partner during ‘The Season’? Do you enjoy classical music in a dinner jacket? Do you have dinner off china rather than tea off your lap? Is sex something that only the oiks do and something to fear? Do you find the policies of the Conservative Party utterly agreeable? Have you read Shakespeare since leaving school? Do you know the importance of manners?…