Ideas above their station

[blufive]

From an Interview with Lord Tebbit in Thursday's Independent:

Question:

Do you support [Singer-songwriter] Billy Bragg's proposals for the reform of the House of Lords [...]?

Lord Tebbit

I should think they're worth the same respect as my proposals on the reform of the pop music industry would be

The implication being: no respect at all. The further implication being that only politicans have the right to express an opinion on political subjects.

This is an attitude I see quite often in politicians, and it really annoys me.

Billy Bragg and I (if you'll forgive my pretensions for a moment) are citizens of this country. We pay taxes. We have the right to vote in elections. Together with the rest of the population, we hire politicians to run the country for us. We therefore have the right to discuss with those politicians how we think the country should be run.

Any politician who takes the attitude that we are "little people" whose opinions are irrelevant (and Lord Tebbit is far from unique in this) has a seriously warped view of how democracy is supposed to work. They're implying that voters aren't allowed to hold opinions, but merely choose between those offered by their political "masters".

The next time you hear a politico sounding off about how a [musician/actor/filmmaker/whatever] should stick to [music/acting/films/etc.] and leave politics to the professionals, remember that the politician is the one with ideas above their station.

Comments

[kingandy]

Of course, the perceived attitude hinges on the inference that Lord Tebbit's hypothetical proposals on the reform of the pop music industry would be worthless. Which is equally bad, carrying as it does the implication that only musicians have the right to express an opinion on musical subjects. Personally I'd wait to hear Lord Tebbit's opinions on the current pop scene before dismissing them, as he may well have some valid ideas.

On the other hand it seems rather unlikely, since he still equates Billy Bragg with "pop-music". So he's a little out of date...

Isn't Giles Brandreth a politician now?

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Giles Brandreth *was* a Tory MP, but isn't any more.

Billy Bragg has been on "Top of the Pops" and plays music that can be described as "popular", and it really depends if you're the sort of person that divides the world into "Classical" and "Pop" or whether you divide "Pop" into Rock, Soul, R&B, House, Garage, Metal, Thrash, Punk ... there are so many levels of sub-division possible. But I bet it was just Tebbit being either ignorant or just using a verbal short hand to dismiss the honourable Mr.Bragg.

[blufive.livejournal.com]

I bet it was just Tebbit being either ignorant or just using a verbal short hand to dismiss the honourable Mr.Bragg.

In his answer to an earlier question, Lord Tebbit made it perfectly clear that he has no interest whatsoever in Rock music, and states that he has "no idea what [The Darkness] is". So I'll let him off describing BB as "pop", and stand by my inference that he's dismissing BB out-of-hand.

[initial article updated with link to interview on web]