During the period when Ireland had its own sort of censorship, a version of the Vatican’s Index of Forbidden Books, there was an ugly rush by publishers and writers to get their books onto it. The novelist Flann O’Brien used to complain that the chances of literary success for a book that hadn’t been banned were very slim. The lesson seems not to have been learned by some of Lady Thatcher’s friends, the ones who are urging the BBC not to broadcast ‘Ding Dong the Witch is Dead’ if it gets to the top of the charts. For some reason it’s been doing awfully well since her death. Headlines in the Daily Mail and Telegraph have helpfully reinforced the sense that buying the thing is an excitingly subversive thing to do. Just think! For 79p a download you can outrage the Establishment! Of course people are buying it though the word is that the BBC may have to issue an explanation for its significance for those members of the audience too young to have a clue who Margaret Thatcher is.
As ever, the politician who epitomises common sense on this one, is Nigel Farage who has tersely observed: ‘Just play the thing. Otherwise it’ll be number one for months.’ Second in the Fount of Good Sense stakes is Lord Hall, director-general of the BBC, who has prudently delegated the entire decision down to Ben Cooper, Controller of Radio One, who has to make his mind up before Sunday’s broadcast of The Official Chart Show.
It is not, I accept, entirely unknown for the BBC to censor songs: ‘Je T’aime’ was too racy; the Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen came out a little too close to the Silver Jubilee.
But we’ve moved on since… haven’t we? Banning songs is a peerless way of giving them popular currency. If Lady T’s friends had loftily ignored the Wizard of Oz motif, it would be far less popular. As it is, the idiot tendency has a joyous opportunity to annoy everyone they dislike simply by playing a song. Rather a catchy one, as it happens. Just leave them to it: they only do it to annoy because they know it teases. I’d be rather surprised myself if Margaret Thatcher, who took controversy in her stride, would have cared a jot.
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