Deputy Prime minister Nick Clegg has won this year’s parliamentary April Fools’ Day prize after convincing a number of MPs that he intended on keeping one of his pre-election promises.
The hotly contested prize was expected to go to George Osborne after he told oil companies he was considering a reversal of the new oil tax, but we has beaten by a flash of genius from Clegg.
Clegg convinced MPs and members of the press that he had convinced the coalition to reverse it’s position on tuition fees, leading to wild celebrations throughout the Liberal Democrat membership and National Union of Students.
Clegg told reporters, “Thanks, I thought it was pretty good. I actually never thought they’d find me keeping my promise about tuition fees believable, so I was going to do something on Trident – but I guess if you don’t aim for the stars you get nowhere.”
“I don’t think it could have gone any better. The look on their faces when I shouted ‘April Fools!’ was absolutely priceless.”
Nick Clegg wins April Fool’s Day
Many practical jokers have been impressed by Clegg’s excellent grasp of the skills needed to fool people into believing that your intentions are genuine.
Lifelong joker Tony Williams said, “Parliament is a notoriously difficult place to pull off a decent practical joke, as most things discussed there sound like they were made up during a drunken pub conversation.”
“But Clegg has shown genuine ability there. If only he’d been this creative in the coalition negotiations then maybe we’d be in a position where we didn’t find this funny.”
