Six months after the coalition government came to power, the first version of Liar Liar was written out of a deep frustration with austerity politics. David Cameron promised that “we’re all in this together” – but the aggressive cuts to public services coupled with banker bailouts told another story. We wanted to put the anger of many Britons to a beat and become an outlet for protest, while providing levity and solidarity in grim times.
It was a way to make politics more relevant and accessible to a wider audience, including young people, by challenging the “I’m not into politics” refrain. After seven years, the government cuts that were meant to put Britain’s finances in order clearly have not worked. Government debt has continued to rise while income inequality is set to reach record highs by 2020. When Theresa May called a snap election on a platform promising strength and stability on the back of ever-deeper public service cuts, it seemed like the right time to remake Liar Liar.
Over the past seven years the band has repeatedly been told that political music is too controversial, too geeky or out of fashion, yet the Liar Liar GE2017 remix seems to have struck a chord over the past week. Despite making it to No 4 in the UK charts, all commercial stations have refused to play it alongside the other top 40 tracks, to maintain balance and impartiality during an election season, in accordance with Ofcom regulations. Yet Liar Liar GE2017 shows the power of protest music in action. Despite its exclusion from the airwaves, the track has been circulated through social media and has managed to transcend the confines of conventional channels. Perhaps after seven years of coalition and Conservative policies, protest music is resonating with a wider public and coming back into fashion.
BBC Radio 1 has gone above and beyond the remit of Ofcom regulations by not only refusing to play Liar Liar GE2017, but also greying out the play button next to the online track listing, which prevents listeners from linking to it as they can with all the other top 40 tracks. It is hard to see what service the BBC is providing to the public by discouraging them from accessing any viewpoints that could instigate critical thinking or debate. Yet open debate is entirely necessary for democratic society’s survival. The BBC is not exercising impartiality, but actively censoring material that it has decided is disagreeable. There are historical precedents for this censorship – when the BBC refused to play the Sex Pistols’ hit God Save the Queen, for instance – that suggest the organisation continually errs on the side of establishment. This is a troubling stance for a broadcaster that is meant to represent the public.
One can understand the good intentions behind Ofcom’s rules, but unfortunately they rely on the fiction that you can easily magic up a neutral value-free space just because it’s an election season. This ignores how power structures work around the clock day in and day out; they cannot simply take a holiday.
Liar Liar GE2017 is certainly an anomaly in the charts due to its subject matter. There are no tantalising sexual lyrics, while the video features a host of Tory politicians instead of scantily clad gyrating women. In an era where young people are always castigated for not engaging with politics as pop culture leads them astray, surely their interest and engagement with politics should be applauded and encouraged rather than censured? This shows that what is regarded as political and who gets the airtime to speak is a deeply embedded issue of power and privilege.
Instead we are urged to tune out of politics and focus on songs about sex, love and breakups. It’s not that these topics aren’t important, but there needs to be room for a richer and wider discussion. Taking an overt political stance via Ska has been embraced by many – perhaps because lots of other folk feel there is too much at stake in this election to just tune out.
So, just to clear up a few facts: Captain Ska is not at No 4 in the UK charts, the video hasn’t been watched over 2.5 million times, nor downloaded over 40,000 times. There aren’t packed club nights around the country playing it to thousands of partying students and we most certainly won’t be performing it live on Wednesday in Brixton, south London. So just keep calm, zone out and put on some Justin Bieber.
