So how much do you really like The Smiths, Dave?

Nicholas

Our Parliament and our Prime Minister has come to this? I suppose it is inevitable in the melding of politicians, celebrities and the media into a kind of hegemony, an elite that robs ordinary people of their voice or pretends to speak for them.

Robson

He should stick to playing jangly guitar riffs - spoken like a true champagne socialist

Percy

Perhaps Johnny Marr would give Dave a pair of the limited edition Ray Bans he is currently flogging, the old sell out!

REPay

Our journos love the celeb stuff because they are walk on players in that world...(The Smiths are the most overrated band though Marr is an excellent guitarist. I suspect Dave is really a Floyd and Genesis fan but was advised to sound more contemporary on DID to his youth...it is at least more credible than GB claiming to like the Artic Monkeys.)

telemachus'

Gordan would never have stood for this. He was not only a sound economist but of impeccable Presbyterian Morals.At last I can agree with the 2.50 poster even if I am wished ill elsewhere.

toco

It is a fundamental mistake to return to the party having left and finding your previous night's hosts with massive hangovers,picking up the broken glasses and staring numbly at the wine stained carpets.So Mr. Marr I counsel you not to return and just accept that your particular party is over.

Jeremy

I hope to God 'The Smiths' don't reform. I grew well and truly sick of their precious miserabilism long before the eighties ended. And I don't want it back, thank you.

And since when did these flimsy celebrities morph into great political philosophers? Since never, that's when.

Axstane

Some of us are a bit sick of bumptious rock musicians and two-bit comedians sticking their entirely uneducated oars into political debate.

Do any of us care if the Smiths are reformed or abolished or disintegrated?

Should politicians announce that they agree with the policies of all aged rockers, punks, druggies or whatever claim to fame these "celebrities" have? So, sod off Mr. Marr or Maher.

DavidDP

"Gordan would never have stood for this"

No, his favourite band was the Arctic Monkeys, if I recall. Not sure if that was stated in the Pier Morgan TV interview or from another interview before that.

ed Lebanon

One suspects that a certain Steven Patrick Morrissey would have some further, even less likely demands of his own before a reformation took place. The Smiths were the greatest British band since the Beatles and, like that band, they split up at the height of their powers and popularity. Don't sully the legacy, chaps.

Axstane

Tele

"Gordan" was a great fan of the Arctic Monkeys he told us. But then he knew more about them and the History of the Labour Party in Scotland than he did of economics.

Keith

Cameron should just have said that the Smiths embody all the qualities that Conservatives applaud: through a combination of hard work, initiative and free enterprise they've made a huge amount of money in the music industry. They may not like the Conservatives but the Conservatives have no reason not to like them.

idle

This may be the only good reson for Cameron to remain in power. Christ, the Smiths were awful. Marr was a reasonable guitarist, but like U2, any hope for the rest of the band was dashed by a ludicrous frontman who could neither sing nor pen a lyric.

Tiberius

The term guitarist is synonymous with some element of musicianship, so why it is applied to someone from the Smiths goodness only knows.

David Ossitt

I see that one of the house trolls (the one without a capital letter to his name) is still attempting to catch the unwary with the same bait as he invariably uses.

It does get very tiresome.

I never liked Morrissey in the past; now I detest the man.

Biggestaspidistra

Let Blur (and Noel G.) be a warning to the Smiths.

Master Cobbett

I'm rather tired of respectable magazines and papers giving space for the vacuous political posturings of people like this Marr individual ( honestly I can claim never to having previously heard of him). to hear what that guitar stumming creep, something Waters, things about the Falkland Islands and Mrss Thatcher put me in a bad enough mood this morning, and now this. Please Spectator people if you are going to provide us what musicians think of matters political, then make sure that they have someting interesting to say--and some intelligence to support what they're saying. Have you ever observed just how utterly stupid a grown man looks when he is playing the electric guitar in public .

smell the glove

I've got a better idea. Why cant the vastly over-rated, preening, millionare, retire and give someone else a chance? Hasbeen. This goes up to eleven!

SJH

Let's not forget the ludicrous and cringeworthy claim by Gordon Brown that he was a fan of the Arctic Monkeys, none of whose songs he could name.

What a woeful man.

The present Prime Minister's tastes are genuinely pop culture. Which I also find dispiriting.

Andy Carpark

David Cameron is a man of many talents. He not only plays air guitar, he also used to play the drums - on biscuit tins. The records suggest that these were his main youthful interests apart from climbing (and perhaps even pulling) greasy poles.

salieri

J'en ai marre? Qui est-il, quand il est chez lui? Bien je jamais. Frappez une lumière. Epierrez les corbeaux. Soddez cela pour un jeu de soldats.

At next week's PMQ: the Prime Minister declares a secret passion for Stockhausen...

Andy Carpark

salieri - Regardez le Cameron. Je crois qu'il souvent frappe le singe - comme onaniste professionel, hein?

Mirtha Tidville

Who the hell are these Smiths....never heard of em...

Yosemite Sam

Who are the Smiths? Do they have any connection to the great Bessie Smith?

WIlliam Blakes Ghost

Who cares what some aging rock luvvy has-been thinks anyway. Within the ranks of the parasite classes, celebrities and those in the entertainment business are truly at the bottom of the food chain.

Jon Stack

It's clear now that we need far reaching and fundamental reform of the Smiths. Thanks for the offer johnny.

salieri

Parking Pratique:

J’ai l’impression que notre Premier Ministre ne vous plaise pas trop. C’est à cause de son inconstance politique ou de ses prétentions populacières?

Quoi qu’il en soit, mon ami, ayez donc pitié du singe. Il est peut-être professionel, lui aussi. En revanche, en ce qui concerne la culture (ou pour mieux dire son manque de culture) rappelez-vous du mot de La Rochefoucauld: Rien n’empêche tant d’être naturel que l’envie de le paraître.

HFC

salieri. Sept sur dix. Vous devez prêter plus d'attention à la grammaire et à la syntaxe svp. Mais bons sentiments que je partage.

TrevorsDen

So musicians and comedians and other artists have veto over who likes their act?

Dimoto

One Marr poluting the air waves is more than enough.

Tron

Pretentious, moi?

telemachus'

Gordon liked the Arctic Monkeys because of the album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not"
Dave of course is all things to all men like Tony

Sir Everard Digby

So,the political classes and their media happily listen to a few (and I use the next word advisedly) 'celebrities' and believe it enhances their credibility. I have news for them - they would have far more credibility if they listened to the wider population.

Do they seriously think that Parliamentary time is best served discussing this irrelevance? Or was this a meeting of the Bovine Scatology committee?

Sebastian Payne

For those who are wondering who or what The Smiths are, see the last link in the post. Should you give a good impression of the PM's favourite band.

salieri

HFC:

Sorry, can't help it, I shouldn't even have started it and Tron's rebuke is fair comment - but what grammatical or syntactical errors lost me your three marks? Surely you don't object to the subjunctive?

Jeremy

TrevorsDen:

"So musicians and comedians and other artists have a veto over who likes their act?"

You make a good point. For all of their drug-addled socialist posturing, I have never yet known one of 'em to turn down my money.