PAUL HEATON - LABOUR "FREE MARKET APOLOGISTS" PUTTING UP NO OPPOSITION TO CUTS

THE voice behind The Beautiful South and The Housemartins has told why he has turned his back on the Labour Party.

Speaking ahead of a gig at the Koko in Camden Town (April 1), singer Paul Heaton warned Labour was putting up “no opposition” to Conservative policy of cutting public spending.

“It’s a very similar situation to the 1980s, a worse situation now, there’s no opposition. With Thatcher there was opposition from trade unions, people and Labour,” he said.



“I haven’t voted for Labour since Neil Kinnock in 1993. I didn’t vote for Tony Blair in 97, I was proud of it because I had the vision to realise he was a scumbag right from the start. Gradually, since then Labour has been taken over by a Miliband tendency – who have got their eyes on a different prize, who are just free market apologists. I find it impossible. I can’t find anything they say inspiring because they’ve got one eye on the market.”

Heaton, whose bands stormed the charts with songs like Happy Hour, said: “What worries me most is that the argument against cuts is being lost. It’s being seen as something we have to do.
“England in 1945 was in a much worse state in terms of the infrastructure of the country and the debt and we built the welfare state and invested money in people and jobs.

“This time, the argument has been lost because of the failure of Labour to say this is not the case, we can invest in people again and we can spend our way – not stupidly – and survive it without making cuts. But their only opposition is we’re making the cuts too quickly, that’s all they’re saying.

“Unfortunately Labour has control of the Left and is still patronising the Left.
“The Labour Party needs to be told, along with the Liberal Party and the Conservatives, that they’re non-representative of anybody other than the business class.”

TOM JONES' ALTAR STAGE INVASION FEATURING JO WHILEY'S MUM + PULP'S BEST. NEWS. EVER. + BRAINY AKALA + THE REVENGE OF D:REAM

TOM Jones set ageing pulses racing at Islington’s Union Chapel on Monday night as he headlined the first night of the magical Mencap Little Noise Sessions.

At Paolo Nutini’s gig the next night, my spies tell me Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley confessed her mum stormed the stage when the irresistible Mr Jones was playing – bear in mind the stage is an altar – these Jones fans are wild.


Here's Mr Jones with Green Green Grass of Home, his encore.
• My fave up-and-comers, quirky, Louis le Prince play cult venue The Lexington (Nov 24). If you’re looking for one new band to adopt, this is it.

• The Electric Ballroom’s got a mighty list of gigs on its way – Kele (Bloc Party) plays Friday, The Fall (Nov 23) and The Tallest Man on Earth (Nov 24).

• In case you’ve been living on another planet I’d like to point out that Pulp are reforming and headline Wireless next year – Best. News. Ever. My fave song’s Babies, what’s yours? PS 02 Academy Islington’s great club night Feeling Gloomy hosts Pulp’s Wireless launch party on Saturday – prizes, surprises and rare Pulp records played early.

• Akala’s sooo brainy and a good guy, not like those bad rappers you read about in the papers. He’s been teaching schoolkids hip-hop Shakespeare – check out his cerebral lyrical dexterity at the British Library (Nov 26).

• I’ve not been complimentary about D:Ream in the past and it seems they’re taking revenge. The checky-trousered dance act, which I hold personally responsible for the birth of Blair, (Tony, not the one-hit-wonder of Have Fun Go Mad obscurity), have managed to convince former keyboarder Brian Cox now a widely respected physicist to abandon sanity and reform – songs from new album “In Memory Of...” (I’d stop there) will be performed at 02 Academy Islington (Dec 1).