Was David Bowie a “secret Tory”? Well – let’s be honest – probably not, but that hasn’t stopped one Daily Telegraph columnist from making the claim on the basis of apparently nothing whatsoever.
William Atkinson, 20-something tweed-clad assistant editor of the Conservative Home website, used the 10th anniversary of Bowie’s death to claim that “stacking up the evidence, there is a lot to suggest that Bowie was no would-be revolutionary – and, if anything, a secret Tory”.
“Behind the outrageous outfits, perma-died hair and indecipherable lyrics existed a man of impeccably small-c conservative tastes,” Atkinson wrote. “Bowie was the supposedly gay rock star who admitted he was a ‘closet heterosexual’ and took two prolonged career breaks to raise his children, who moved to Switzerland to reduce his tax bill, and, who alongside Ronald Reagan… did more than any other public figure to hasten the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Suggested Reading
Ten years later, David Bowie is still everywhere
“Soviet tank divisions were nothing against the howls of Heroes. When Bowie played to big crowds in East Berlin in 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev surely realised the writing was on the, erm, wall.”
Leaving aside the questionable claims about the Cold War – as everyone knows, David Hasselhoff brought down the Berlin Wall – the idea that having children makes one a Conservative seems dubious at best. Asked by Smash Hits in 1987 about the forthcoming general election, he said: “My tendency would be towards a Labour vote and it would be kind of nice if Labour got in – but of course I know that Thatcher will get in…(sighs).”
And as part of the best-forgotten Tin Machine, Bowie wrote the song Under the God, with lyrics about “White trash picking up Nazi flags” and “Right wing dicks in their boiler suits.” Fortunately Atkinson prefers a nice Harris blazer.
Most popular
Robert Jenrick, the hollow man
The press that thinks it’s the opposition
Can MAGA tech firm Palantir be trusted to run Britain’s data?
It’s time for a European army
