28 Responses to A NEW ENGLAND?

  1. chrisH says:
    May 31, 2014 at 3:55 pm

    Particularly when they only let HIM answer some asinine question about the death of the protest singer or such.
    Claire Fox would know far more, given that Bragg has not written any song that anybody would give a damn about.
    New England only has kudos because a dead singer sang it before her demise.
    In short-Billy has achieved nothing….and will be Lord William Bragg of Burton Bradstock sometime soon.
    “They`re all fat and old/Queuing for the House of Lords”
    “Remote Control”-the Clash-with a true protest singer!
    Bragg is the Lovelace Watkins of protest…”bellicose quack” indeed to quote some fine bloke here

       45 likes

  2. Ian Rushlow says:
    May 31, 2014 at 4:42 pm

    Bragg espouses a vague sort of English nationalism with a left wing perspective – perhaps that is what appeals to the BBC, implying that there is an “approved” outlet for such sentiments. Of course, he espouses these views from a safe, secure part of the country that still is English, far removed the parts that have more in common with Downtown Tehran that Downton Abbey. Or perhaps there is a retrospective “Greatest Hits” collection of his music on the way and he just needs the publicity. P.S. Levi Stubb’s Tears from Talking Poetry with the Taxman isn’t too bad a song 🙂

       35 likes

    • chrisH says:
      May 31, 2014 at 5:06 pm

      And I DID hear him sing “The Tracks of My Tears” on Dermot O Leary a couple of years ago.
      And sang it perfectly well.
      Which only makes his affected mockney barkings even more contrived and annoying.

         19 likes

    • Break up the BBC says:
      June 1, 2014 at 11:44 am

      Billy Bragg does not believe in a single nation, he believes England should be regionalised and each region given the same powers that the Scottish government has. He thus deceives; it is his wish that the single nation of England be destroyed. He goes down well with the BBC who believe the same.

         11 likes

      • Dave S says:
        June 1, 2014 at 8:24 pm

        Well we could revive old Wessex. Minus any of London of course. Bragg gets to live in the heart of Wessex then. The way the balkanisation of our country is going perhaps Wessex might have to be recreated one day.

           5 likes

  3. stuart says:
    May 31, 2014 at 5:12 pm

    billy bragg used to be the owen jones of the past.then billy thought best me make a few million quid on the back of the working classes strumming his guitar and singing about class war.then billy bought a ÂŁ1 million mansion in a leafy village full of white people in tory controlled devon,so much for working class solidarity there billy,now billy has popped back up on any questions and even said last night he does get enough invites to appear on the bbc as he used,maybe that is because billy you are not important as you thought you was and have stabbed the working classes in the back by accusing all of us of racism etc when we dared complained against mass immigration like most of your fellow champayne socalists in the labour party done to us,there you go billy,you sold out the working classes and embraced capitalism for your own selfish money making reasons even though you pretend you did not,your a fake man,a damm mockney working class wannabe.

       46 likes

  4. Ember2014 says:
    May 31, 2014 at 5:32 pm

    “Take Down the Union Jack”(2002) – by Billy Bragg:

    Take down the Union Jack, it clashes with the sunset
    And put it in the attic with the emperors old clothes
    When did it fall apart? Sometime in the 80s
    When the Great and the Good gave way to the greedy and the mean
    Britain isn’t cool you know, its really not that great
    It’s not a proper country, it doesn’t even have a patron saint
    It’s just an economic union that’s passed its sell-by date..

    Yeh, we know where you’re coming from Braggy boy.

       49 likes

    • Kenneth says:
      June 1, 2014 at 12:53 am

      Thx for sharing.

      I didn’t realize Billy Bragg was such an extremist. I knew the BBC had extreme views and is still promoting them.

      The BBC is trying to radicalize us but people are increasingly seeing the gap between the their own lives and the extremist propaganda the BBC promotes.

         19 likes

  5. Scott says:
    May 31, 2014 at 6:00 pm

    “I wonder why the BBC provide has-been singer Billy Bragg…”

    …because he has more to say than a has-been egotistical failed politician whose only achievement is to drum up ignorant fervour in an online band of racists, xenophobes, homophobes and other idiots?

       9 likes

  6. Alex says:
    May 31, 2014 at 6:32 pm

    Forgive me for seeming ignorant of trendy and right-on music, but why is this talentless overgrown student famous? Was he a master songwriter like Lennon, Jagger and Mercury?

       32 likes

    • Big Dick says:
      May 31, 2014 at 9:49 pm

      Or Rod & Ronnie , Or Plant , Page , JP Jones & J Bonham , Or Gilmore , Waters ,Wright & Mason. Or Clapton & Beck , Or Fleetwood , McVie , Green with Buckingham / Nicks .

         19 likes

  7. Dazed & Confused says:
    May 31, 2014 at 9:08 pm

    “Has been” singer?

    Don’t you mean never was?

       34 likes

  8. Kenneth says:
    June 1, 2014 at 12:48 am

    What really aggles me is the lie that most artists come from the Left.

    Rubbish.

    The truth is that there are many comedians and musicians out there with right wing jokes and lyrics.

    The truth is that they would never be allowed on any BBC tv or radio station.

    The BBC has always promoted left wing musicians, playwrights and comedians.

    Shame

       28 likes

  9. Peter Baber says:
    June 1, 2014 at 1:14 pm

    They keep conveniently forgetting to mention that this is the same Billy Bragg who in August 1989 (the date is HUGELY significant,) said in an interview that he envied people living under the then Eastern bloc regimes in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and East Germany because they were so “free”. As far as I know he has never apologised for such useful idiocy.

       17 likes

  10. chrisH says:
    June 1, 2014 at 1:31 pm

    And what of Tom Robinson?
    Whose brother is doing rather well at the BBC of course.
    From gay to straight as needs led…those Nigerian pastors obviously CAN cure you of gayness?
    “Fascists marching down the High Street/Carving up the welfare state”(“Power in the Darkness” was it not?).
    Nuanced poetry that Bragg could only dream of…subtle and insinuating!
    Tom Robinson is not to be confused with Tommy Robinson of course…the latter sings and plays bass better than the Godawful creator of “War Babies”.
    Still-he`s shoo-in for the BBC…right kind of lefty, despite falling off the Pink List…

       3 likes

    • chrisH says:
      June 1, 2014 at 1:35 pm

      Think it was “Up against the Wall”…that lyric above.
      This would be the one that Billy would like to rebuild, using indentured Dorset artisans, so he could recreate the synchronised tank manoevres of Budapest or Prague.
      Still-his beard is getting luxurious enough for him to dye and to be allowed to enter Tower Hamlets as he likes.
      Creep.

         6 likes

  11. joeb says:
    June 1, 2014 at 4:35 pm

    Is this the same Billy Bragg who lives in a posh mansion in a whiter-than-white village on Dorset’s Jurassic coast, bought with the proceeds of singing songs about socialist revolution and how he is “one of the workers”, or Blly Bragg, the kitchen worktop millionaire?

    Pour me another glass of Dom Perignon, Billy! The ’96 please, or perhaps the ’85 – you decide. This socialism business is thirty work!

       6 likes

    • Mark says:
      June 1, 2014 at 9:35 pm

      Your home isn’t in a particularly vibrant and multicultural area of the country, is it, Billy ?

      Sanctimonious socialist sod.

         8 likes

  12. Glenn says:
    June 1, 2014 at 9:47 pm

    Bragg is like Bonnie Greer, neither have done anything that anyone has heard of.

       8 likes