Politicians On Desert Island Discs: The Best (And Worst) Choices
We, the British public, are often found criticising politicians for being soulless entities walking about Parliament filing their expenses and generally not connected with anyone they're paid to serve. However, it seems we're all missing a trick. There is a way to get a true picture of our politicians, a real insight into the kind of person they really are. Desert Island Discs, of course.
The biographical radio programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 since 1942, asks guests to choose eight pieces of music, a book and a luxury item that they would take to a desert island. Notable guests over the years have included Kenneth Williams, Terry Wogan and David Attenborough, though tons of politicians have sat down with Kirsty Young in recent years and examining their choices - particularly their 'best song' - can provide us with plenty of insight.
The latest guest into the BBC studio was Ed Miliband - the man who hopes to be the next Prime Minster. This is a guy who's effectively trying to prove that he's absolutely nothing like David Cameron in a bid to hoover up the votes - particularly the youth vote - in 2015. His choices were going to be Tom Waits, The Jesus & Mary Chain and maybe a sort of obscure Elton John song to prove that he still flirts with mainstream pop when he's in the mood - weren't they?
Well, no, they weren't. He said his favourite song was Angels by Robbie Williams. Which is everyone's favourite song. It's your favourite song, it's your mother's favourite song, it's my favourite song. It's not, but, it is. Twenty-somethings who were probably thinking about voting Labour in 2015, with their Macbooks and fancy graphic designing jobs, broke down in tears. Ed Miliband has chosen Angels by Robbie Williams as his favourite song. His father was a Belgian-born Polish sociologist who became one of the best known academic Marxists of his generation, and Ed had chosen Angels by Robbie Williams as his favourite song.
Anyway, he's not the only politician to choose some truly dreadful choices on Desert Island Discs, but there has been some good ones too.
In 2006, some fella named Cameron - then just the leader of the opposition - made his appearance on the show. He picked a sickening choice of songs clearly designed to come across as cool, with it and edgy. To be fair, his 'best song' was Bob Dylan's Tangled Up In Blue which is anything but an obvious choice and remains one of the greatest songs put down on tape. But the others. Oh the others.
He chose Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. Two problems: nobody actually likes Pink Floyd, and those who say they do don't choose Wish You Were Here as their favourite song. He also chose Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees. It's perfectly acceptable to pull out the experimental Oxford rockers, but Fake Plastic Trees? That's nobody's favourite Radiohead song. In fact, the only people who choose Fake Plastic Trees as their favourite Radiohead song are people that don't really like Radiohead that much. Other choices included the incredibly predictable This Charming Man by The Smiths and ALL THESE THINGS THAT I'VE DONE by THE KILLERS - which is unforgivable.
Next page: Davis Davis, Boris Johnson and Tony Blair.
Another curious little appearance came from David Davis in 2008. He's the guy that lost out on the Conservative leadership to Cameron. Sort of a small-C conservative, Davis is known to be a relatively likeable chap, but his musical choices were those of a privileged man going through a serious crisis. His first choice was Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D major, which nobody has ever heard, ever. But it was his second choice that made us all spit out our coffee. GET THE PARTY STARTED by PINK? What the hell was he thinking? Only school children like that song, and even then it's only the ones with no taste. Phil Collins and Dire Straits were to follow. Horrendous.
Boris Johnson eh? Good old Boris. Such a ridiculous little man, with an equally curious taste in music. The Mayor of London's appearance on Desert Island Discs in 2005 threw up a couple of decent choices, including Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles, Soul Limbo by Booker T. & The MG's and Pressure Drop by The Clash. Of course all of that good work was undone when he uttered the immortal phrase 'Brown Eyed Girl'. Van Morrison has approximately 50 songs better than Brown Eyed Girl - there is no possible reason for that track to be anyone's favourite eight songs of all time. No reason whatsoever - apart from maybe if you're Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, or, uh...Boris Johnson.
Blair! It's only Tony Blair! One of the most polarising politicians of his generation appeared on the show in 1995 - one year before he became Prime Minster. On the whole, his choices were decent if unremarkable. Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune? Shut up Tony. In My Life by The Beatles? Fine. Fourth of July by Bruce Springsteen? Great!
Nick Clegg, what are you doing choosing Shakira's Waka Waka, mate? The Deputy Prime Minister sat down with Kirsty Young in 2010 to discuss his favourite tunes and chose the Colombian singer's World Cup tune as one of his best. We have no idea why.
To be fair to the Liberal Democrat, he came up with some goodies, including Radiohead's Street Spirit, Prince's The Cross and David Bowie's Life on Mars which are all fine in our book - for a politician.