Vote for me: I'm cultured.
It is generally expected of local press contributors in the run-up to this election to steer clear of mainstream political bias and let the candidates fight it out among themselves. Yet there are other facets to the lives of party leaders which get overlooked when we’re trying to assess their overall character. In a recent interview in a major Sunday broadsheet, UKIP’s Nigel Farage made this proud boast: “I don’t read books, I don’t watch films and I don’t listen to music.”
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| FARAGE: HIS ONLY CULTURE IS THE YEAST IN HIS BEER. |
Well, life must be dull with only politics, cigarettes and a pint. So, what about the musical tastes of Messrs. Cameron, Miliband and Clegg? David Cameron’s all-time favourite record is, surprisingly enough, Benny Hill’s Ernie,The Fastest Milkman in The West. He also loves This Charming Man, by The Smiths. What a broad taste they must have in the dormitory at Eton. Yet The Smiths are politically diametrically opposed to everything our PM stands for, to the point where Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr made the futile announcement “I forbid Cameron to like our music”. Yet Call Me Dave also likes Bob Dylan, REM and Radiohead. And his favourite book? The River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Ed Miliband’s favourite book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. He’s musically moved by South Africa’s national anthem, Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika,William Blake’s Jerusalem and Robbie Williams singing Angels. As for Downing Street’s classroom monitor, Nick Clegg, his favourite book is The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa - a novel about a Sicilian nobleman. He loves David Bowie’s Life on Mars and as well as a bit of Schubert and Chopin, shakes his booty to Waka Waka, the 2010 World Cup song by Shakira.
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| THE 'BOY BAND' FROM HELL? |
I think we can guess at the cultural choices of Scottish and Welsh nationalists. There’ll be a few jigs and reels, bagpipes and choirs involved, a bit of Robbie Burns and maybe some Dylan Thomas.
So, we all have a civilizing side to our character. Even politicians. It might be movies, X-Box games, sport, YouTube, 50 Shades of Grey, Beethoven, hip-hop or Heavy Metal. Alongside our other beliefs, political or religious, they all go into making us who we are. Britain has given the world so much culturally, so it comes as a sad surprise to learn that our universities are suffering with major cuts to the Humanities - literature, philosophy, etc., with all the new funding going to business and science. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has already advised students to avoid the arts. Which inevitably takes us back to Mr. Farage’s non-cultural claim.
I couldn’t help thinking of Herman Goering’s outburst “When I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun.” (a line written originally by German playwright Hanns Johst for Hitler’s birthday in 1933.) Maybe, therefore, after the election, whoever is in government might take on Groucho Marx’s version: “When I hear the word culture, I reach for my wallet.”
