The hypocrisy amongst the political establishment has been ear bleeding following a member of the punk rap trio Kneecap pronouncing that their audience should kill their local MP.
As a result, Scotland Yard added: “An investigation is now being carried out by officers from the Met’s counter-terrorism command.”
HOWEVER:
In a nation that prides itself on centuries-old democratic values, the creeping criminalisation of provocative artistic expression reveals an increasingly fragile establishment afraid of its own reflection. The decision to unleash counter-terrorism officers on Kneecap, a politically charged rap group whose controversial lyrics are not acts of violence but acts of resistance, lays bare a state apparatus more interested in protecting its image than confronting its injustices. When language that confronts colonialism, criticises complicity in foreign atrocities, or mocks political authority is met not with debate but with investigation, cancellation, and condemnation, we are no longer witnessing the defence of public safety but the suffocation of dissent. The hypocrisy is stark: politicians who remain silent on war crimes in Gaza, who justify centuries of imperial bloodshed, now perform moral outrage over lyrics and pronouncements at a gig, branding satire and outrage as terror while ignoring their own role in real-world violence.
The outrage isn’t about safety – it’s about control. That artists, journalists, and entire communities must tiptoe around power for fear of being branded extremists is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes, not democracies. When a government determines who can perform at Glastonbury, we must ask, Who’s next? The silencing of Kneecap is not about tasteless lyrics; it is about sanitising culture, neutering rebellion, and ensuring the public hears only that which reinforces state narratives. It is no accident that this comes as Britain wrestles with its role in Gaza and the lingering shame of its colonial legacy. The establishment fears Kneecap not because they incite violence but because they expose uncomfortable truths through irreverence and rage. And in a society that still claims to cherish free speech, it is those truths, not lyrics, that pose the real threat to power.
Let Us Remember!
‘Four years ago, a guest on BBC’s ‘Have I Got News for You’ said that the Glastonbury music festival should be bombed to wipe out 200,000 Corbyn voters.
The show’s presenter laughed heartily, and the BBC defended the guest’s comments after the show. There were countless complaints from the public, but the BBC doubled down and protected the show and its guests. No MPs called for the comedian to be banned or de-platformed.
The establishment defends jokes from people calling for the deaths of left-wing voters but not jokes from people calling for the deaths of right-wing MPs. Quite the double standard.’
(The Daily Politik)
He said, “People think that Bob Dylan’s the greatest musician that ever lived, and you listen to some of it, and it’s awful. But then people are so dogmatic and say he’s the greatest musician. People who like Corbyn, it’s what, 200,000 people in the Labour Party who are fanatics? So all you’ve got to do next year is bomb Glastonbury. Hopefully Dylan’s headlining: two birds, one stone.”
Rather than challenging power or critiquing ideology in a meaningful way on HIGNFY, Fin Taylor’s punchline relied on shock and a sneer. The choice to invoke mass violence as a metaphor in an era where bomb threats are a grim reality shows not boldness but a lack of imagination. Satire should punch up; instead, this joke targeted a grassroots political movement made up largely of disillusioned youth and marginalised voices, suggesting their idealism is somehow worthy of annihilation, metaphorically or otherwise.
It’s one thing to question the contradictions of Corbynism or to highlight the naivety sometimes found at the intersection of politics and performance. But to do so with a throwaway line that treats mass death as a punchline is neither clever nor brave. It’s just lazy provocation.
As for those who want to ban a band for a throwaway statement, perhaps they would be treated more seriously if they responded uniformly instead of selectively. For those who are awake, it is not only rank hypocrisy but also an attempt by the establishment to ignore the real terrorists. Themselves.
And finally:
