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| Lib Dems to mock Charles Kennedy's drinking problem - just three months after his alcohol-related death | Lib Dems to mock Charles Kennedy's drinking problem - just three months after his alcohol-related death |
| (4 months later) | |
| Lib Dem activists have come under fire after they refused to drop their traditional karaoke song mocking Charles Kennedy's drinking problem from tonight's annual sing-along party. | Lib Dem activists have come under fire after they refused to drop their traditional karaoke song mocking Charles Kennedy's drinking problem from tonight's annual sing-along party. |
| The former Liberal Democrat leader died just three months ago due to a major hemorrhage caused by his long battle with alcoholism. | The former Liberal Democrat leader died just three months ago due to a major hemorrhage caused by his long battle with alcoholism. |
| But tonight, at the party's traditional Glee Club karaoke night - a popular and noisy fringe event where attendees crowd around a piano and sing popular songs rewritten with politically-themed lyrics - supporters will sing about his battle with the bottle. | But tonight, at the party's traditional Glee Club karaoke night - a popular and noisy fringe event where attendees crowd around a piano and sing popular songs rewritten with politically-themed lyrics - supporters will sing about his battle with the bottle. |
| One of the songs due to be sung tonight describes their late leader as "a lovely little leader but a bugger when he's pissed". | One of the songs due to be sung tonight describes their late leader as "a lovely little leader but a bugger when he's pissed". |
| Lib Dem activists will go on to sing about Mr Kennedy "downing bottles in a trice" and asks him to "share the contents of your flask". | Lib Dem activists will go on to sing about Mr Kennedy "downing bottles in a trice" and asks him to "share the contents of your flask". |
| The song was written in 2004 - before Mr Kennedy, then Lib Dem leader, admitted to his alcohol problem and has been sung at the party's annual conference every year since, along with its raft of other edgy songs. | The song was written in 2004 - before Mr Kennedy, then Lib Dem leader, admitted to his alcohol problem and has been sung at the party's annual conference every year since, along with its raft of other edgy songs. |
| Another song on tonight's songbook - compiled by the long-running liberal satirical magazine Liberator, is one attacking the party's former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander. | Another song on tonight's songbook - compiled by the long-running liberal satirical magazine Liberator, is one attacking the party's former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander. |
| It mocks him for having many "Tory friends" and defending his ex-Conservative colleagues' record in office. Mr Alexander was criticised by some in the Lib Dems for "going native" at the Treasury and being too close to George Osborne, the Tory Chancellor, as the Coalition government made deep cuts to public services. | It mocks him for having many "Tory friends" and defending his ex-Conservative colleagues' record in office. Mr Alexander was criticised by some in the Lib Dems for "going native" at the Treasury and being too close to George Osborne, the Tory Chancellor, as the Coalition government made deep cuts to public services. |
| The chorus sings: "So why don't you just this once show you're a Liberal, show there is passion and some principles you share? But no, instead you sound robotically a Tory, and all the people see is that semi-vacant stare." | The chorus sings: "So why don't you just this once show you're a Liberal, show there is passion and some principles you share? But no, instead you sound robotically a Tory, and all the people see is that semi-vacant stare." |