James Blunt being a legend again.

fretmeister

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/19/james-blunts-letter-chris-bryant-in-full?CMP=share_btn_fb

Drew_TNBD

Legend.

Paul_C

the reply to the reply is worth a read too.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/19/chris-bryant-letter-james-blunt-in-full

Fretwired

Ah ha .. Chris Bryant is a twat .. Cheltenham Boys School (Private), Oxford University and the Church of England for training in the priesthood where he got another degree in theology. He was also a member of the Tory party. I think there's more diversity in the music industry than Parliament ... MPs seem to be private educated, Oxbridge types who've never had a job and who live in cuckoo land. Now how do we change that?

randomhandclaps

The most ridiculous thing about Bryant's original complaint is it goes to show how little he knows about a sector he is supposed to overlook.  My wife's oldest friend is the manager of a Glastonbury headliner who are indeed (as are many) part of a flood of rich kids who can afford to buy their way into the industry, such is the pressure on studios and labels not to take risks of financing unknown talent.  James Blunt, despite his Harrow (boarding school LOL) is not one.

DesVegas

This has now made up my mind for me, from now on, i'm going to be from a privileged background.  It makes sense really and i'm unsure why i didn't do this from the very start. I .... a fool.

jd0272

I'm now inclined to purchase a James Blunt poster, kick out the wife, and put said poster on the bedroom wall.

jonnyburgo

I think Oasis were the last truly working class band to make it big. Blunt's letter is good though.

dafuzz

Toff fight! Lock them in a cage and give them knives

Moltisanti

i like him as a person and his stance in matters like this, i can't however bring myself to like his music

ICBM

I'm not a fan of James Blunt's music, and he did seem to overdo the 'stopping WW3' thing a bit (although he may well have been joking), but he seems a fairly decent bloke really. I'd quite like to see Chris Bryant call him posh to his face, too.

Fretwired

It's obviously something that upsets Labour although the irony is lost on them .. how many working class people are there in the shadow cabinet?

And older article .. http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2011/02/01/the-toff-takeover-of-british-pop-it-has-to-stop/

Phil_aka_Pip

If I liked popcorn I'd get some

jellyroll

Chris Bryant names Blunt then flaps away Blunt's criticism with "Oh, I wasn't talking about you." No, you were just forming a stereotype based on who you thought Blunt was. Twat. 

Heartfeltdawn

Fretwired said:

Ah ha .. Chris Bryant is a twat .. Cheltenham Boys School (Private), Oxford University and the Church of England for training in the priesthood where he got another degree in theology. He was also a member of the Tory party. I think there's more diversity in the music industry than Parliament ... MPs seem to be private educated, Oxbridge types who've never had a job and who live in cuckoo land. Now how do we change that?

A 2014 survey by the SMCP commision which said 33% of MPs were privately educated. I would imagine the music industry to be similar with that figure going up for classical music which is dominated by private schooled persons. 

fatherjack

Chris Bryant's reply.

Fretwired

fatherjack said:

Chris Bryant's reply.

Bryant's an ever bigger twat. An extract:

I’m delighted you’ve done well for yourself. But it is really tough forging a career in the arts if you can’t afford the enormous fees for drama school, if you don’t know anybody who can give you a leg up, if your parents can’t subsidise you for a few years whilst you make your name and if you can’t afford to take on an unpaid internship.

Bryant offers no ideas .. scholarships for talented kids from poorer backgrounds to go to music and drama schools might be an idea.

Another Labour class war rant that's backfired.

Heartfeltdawn

jonnyburgo said:

I think Oasis were the last truly working class band to make it big. Blunt's letter is good though.

Arctic Monkeys perhaps?

GuitarMonkey

Don't you mean "James Blunt being a knob-end again"

Chris Bryant is right. If only he'd actually do something about it.

randomhandclaps

Fretwired said:

how many working class people are there in the shadow cabinet?

I was actually genuinely curious about this  as it's had got to the point where I would have said there were merely a few token working class bods in there.  I was quite surprised that the number of those shadow cabinet minister from what most would deem 'not typically working class backgrounds' was actually this low.  Obviously people's interpretations of what working class or privileged entails varies, but out of 27 ministers listed as being in the cabinet, these are the ones who most may consider non-traditional Labourists.

• Harriet Harmon daughter of a solicitor and a Harley St doctor & privately educated
• Ed Balls son of a Zoologist & privately educated
• Douglas Alexander son of a CoS Minister and a doctor & privately educated
• Chuka Umunna son of a solicitors and grandson of a high court judge & privately educated
• Tristram Hunt son of Meteorologist Baron Hunt of Chesterton & privately educated

So just over 81% of Labour's current cabinet come from working class roots and/or are state educated.

Not trying to prove anything, was just sating my curiosity whilst waiting for my cuppa to cool.

Fretwired

Kasabian aren't posh and seem to class themselves as working class having very few paper qualifications between them.