LIVE 8: BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH

Something just floated past me earlier today while we were doing other things - we had Fox News on in the background, and I think it was The Beltway Boys who got round to mentioning Live 8; one of them was announcing something that he'd heard - that the bands taking part had been given strict instructions not to decry George Bush from the stage as he'd been a good friend to the Live 8 organisers and they needed to keep him on side.

Now, it's possible that - this being Fox - that there wasn't anything to it. On the other hand, it did throw something into fairly sharp relief: yesterday was meant to be a political event (sometimes, depending on who you were talking to and what time it was) and yet, well, it wasn't very political at all, was it? Humanitarian at points, but even when there was some attempt to directly connect with the G8 summit, it seldom went further than showing pictures of the eight heads and a hopeful "please, sir, could everyone have some more?"

So, was that because the bands chosen were so wispy that they've not got the fire in their belly for a fight, or was it because they had been told not to rock the boat? Was the whole point of Live 8 to flatter the very people who've gotten us into this mess in the first place?

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