Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Ed Vaizey: Never mind the words, listen to the tune

David Cameron, you'll recall, claims to have been a big fan of The Smiths. Nobody ever did get to the bottom of how he so enjoyed songs apparently at total odds with his worldview.

Now, shadow arts minister Ed Vaizey turns out to be a big fan of The Specials. The Guardian reports:

his pop tastes are rooted in the late 1970s and early 80s (he is a fan of the Specials).

A big fan of The Specials? And yet, also, a big fan of Thatcher:
What does Vaizey make of Thatcher's record on the arts? "She believed in greater involvement of private ­donors," he says. "And if you have frank conversations [behind] closed doors, a lot of people in arts organisations will say that a lot of what Thatcher did was actually quite good, in making them go out to the marketplace and raise money."

Who would those people be, exactly? Presumably the ones whose jobs are in the corporate sponsorship, which is a bit like people who make stab vests saying that knife crime isn't all bad.

Still: The Specials and Thatcher. How can you extract value from both?


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I thought Cameron's comments on The Eton Rifles were funnier than liking The Smiths. One really would have to be thick not get what was going on in that song and how it is actually directly criticising you. It's like responding to a "Fuck You" with a "Why thank you my dear fellow!"

It's interesting that I seem to remember some years ago hearing that the wretched Thatcher herself was quoted as saying that her favourite song was Telstar. Perhaps they all should stick to naming instrumentals so as to not appear so stupid.

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