A video for the British National Party (BNP) that featured ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’ by the Manic Street Preachers has been withdrawn after complaints from the band’s record company Sony.
The song’s lyrics were written as a tribute to volunteers who joined the International Brigade to fight fascists during the Spanish Civil War – yet the BNP felt it appropriate to play a clip of the track over an article which claimed that the “great multicultural experiment” had resulted in “violence, hatred, fragmentation and despair” in London.
“You can interpret the lyrics any way you want,” said BNP spokesman Simon Darby. Aha.
Being remided today of 90s Tory sleaze, the image that popped into my mind was that of Steve Bell’s cartoons of John Major, with his underpants on over his trousers. My parents had one of those cartoons pinned to the kitchen wall, I belive. I loved those cartoons. I used to do my own ones, of Margaret Thatcher and Douglas Turd, which in retrosepct was probably a strange thing for an 11 year old to be doing.
Anyway, I just read that Steve bell has a special pair of John Major underpants up for auction on ebay (currently at £365), in aid of NNLSDropin, a charity that supports destitute asylum seekers.
A whole gang of celeb types have donated pants, and they are as follows:
Alex Kingston
Aline Crumb
Alison Goldfrapp
Anthea Turner
Cath Kidston
Constance Briscoe
Daniel Day-Lewis
David Morrissey
Emma Thompson
Fay Ripley
Fergie
Helen Mirren
Ian Hislop
Jah Wobble
Jarvis Cocker
John Hegley
Jordan
Kirsty Young
Nick Cave
Nick Hornby
Ray Winstone
Ricky Gervais
Sacha Baron Cohen
Sheila Hancock
Steve Bell
Theo Walcott
Tilda Swinton
Tom Chambers
Tracy Moberley
Mark Thomas
Benjamin Zephaniah
Joanna Lumley
Sandi Toksvig
Sue Perkins
Currently, Black eyed Peas singer Fergie’s are getting the most love, at £435 and 40 bids, followed by Bell’s, then Jarvis Cocker’s, then Nick Cave’s, then Jordan’s. Insert your own jokes in the commens, thanks very much.
This talented young lady has been painting herself having sexual relations with American presidents, in chronological order. I think that’s awesome. On her website, she states:
In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States in chronological order. I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives. The presidency itself is a seemingly immortal and impenetrable institution; by inserting myself in its timeline, I attempt to locate something intimate and mortal. I use this intimacy to subvert authority, but it demands that I make myself vulnerable along with the Presidents. A power lies in rendering these patriarchal figures the possible object of shame, ridicule and desire, but it is a power that is constantly negotiated.
I approach the spectacle of sex and politics with a certain playfulness. It would be easy to let the images slide into territory that’s strictly pornographic—the lurid and hardcore, the predictably “controversial.” One could also imagine a series preoccupied with wearing its “Fuck the Man” symbolism on its sleeve. But I wish to move beyond these things and make something playful and tender and maybe a little ambiguous, but exuberantly so. This, I feel, is the most humanizing act I can do.
By Akira The Don on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
OMG THIS IS SO MY JAM 
