Mixing pop and politics he asks me what the use is / I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses.

If I can entertain people and get them to open up a little bit, then they're much more conducive to any ideas I might have, whether they're about relationships or politics. The most interesting songs, I think, are the ones where the two overlap.

A nation with their freezers full are dancing in their seats, while outside another nation is sleeping in the streets.

I came into this whole business by going to see Rock Against Racism gigs with the Clash.

I've had songs written during the Falklands war, and during the first Gulf war I got letters from soldiers saying they were listening to these songs, like Island of no return.

All the great political music was made at the height of political confrontations.

I think if you're going to make political art, you have to engage at some level. You can't just write about politics, you have to try and be politics as well.