Posted 4:31 PM by Paul
Pop Music for Ugly People

"Politics? It's pop music for ugly people. Didn't you know?"

It is about 6 years since I first heard the expression but I still laugh. I was a Labour councillor at the time and it really hit home. I was as bad as the rest. Surveying the UK political scene the phrase seems more apposite than ever.

The new Tory leader is not reviewed on his politics but on his first performance at Prime Ministers Question Time as if he were a new solo artist at the Marquee Club. Dianne Abbot, a left wing fire brand MP who had condemned others for sending their kids to selective schools is caught out sending her son to private fee paying school. She wails, " It will ruin my career". Her first thought is of herself. Michael Portillo, former darling of the Thatcherites stands down as an MP, saying he has lost his passion for politics. I bet the loyal Conservatives who gave him the safe seat of Kensington and Chelsea had wished he had told them a few years ago when he assured them that he was theirs for life. In fact he has just scored a better gig as a TV pundit. Me me me. Just like a bunch of preening wannabe pop stars.

Blair is the same. He has terrible I trouble. "I truly believe" this and "I truly believe" that. "I have no reverse gear."

What about us Tony? You know? The people who voted for you. We thought we had something going for a year or two. You told us that you weren't like the other boys but it turned out you were worse.

People are worried. For weeks they have been asking themselves the same question.

" But what does Tony get out of this special relationship with Bush?"

UK prisoners are still held in Guantanamo without trial or hope of release. The steel tariffs still stand. Kyoto remains unsigned. But there is an answer. Looking back to the way that Blair grinned from ear to ear like a schoolboy at his ovation from Congress, Michael Moore said that Tony gives in so easily because he is desperate to be loved in America. I am not a fan of Moore but I think he has a point.

Tony has had a few Number 1 hits in the UK. But he is now bored of the regular appearances on Top of the Pops. Now he wants to break America like the Who and the Stones before him.

Pop music for ugly people. Rock on.