I suspect every reader of this blog who is also politically active will have come across an issue locally where popular opinion is strongly on one side and the party or candidate holds a strongly opposing view.

In truth it is all too common that politicians succumb to electoral pressure and go for the cheap vote.

OTOH, the Liberal Democrat policies on Europe and immigration are perhaps an example of anti-populism!

I take it that you are too young to remember The Rock and Roll Years, a BBC documentary series, each episode of which set the news from a particular year to the pop songs from that year.

It covered the years 1956 to 1989 and consisted entirely of original news clips and pop songs accompanying original footage. Its content included the Vietnam War, the Sharpeville massacre, countless assassinations, Suez, the crushing of the Hungarian and Czech uprisings, the Miners’ Strike, the Falklands… More blood and horror than any person could wish to contemplate, all set to some of the greatest songs ever recorded.

It was brilliant and moving and I would strongly recommend that you try to watch it some time. It will change the way you view this style of political commentary forever.

First and foremost I am sorry that some people have taken offence. To my mind however protest songs have been an accepted and effective means of protest for several decades. Putting images to those words is, in my view an acceptable extension of that practice and has indeed been used by news organisations, film makers and musicians to great effect.

The music was chosen with great thought. This is not some music-pop mush. The original German lyrics were about a bunch of balloons that are let go in the sky. Some people think they’re UFO’s, whilst the Generals, who see them, interpret them as enemy craft and start a giant war. In other words it is a commentary on how quick authorities are to the trigger armies, without first finding out the facts of a situation.

I see very clear parallels between this sentiment and the reaction to 9-11. A war waged on Iraq followed by a war waged on British citizens by its own government. If the video is at all shocking that is because what has happened in Iraq – and Britain with the destruction of civil liberties- is equally shocking.

The images were chosen with extreme care and after much thought – many, many pieces of footage were not used. I believe it would have been a failure to those who died not to show Iraqi’s being pulled from bombed towns, insurgents being executed, or dead soldiers returning to the UK. It happened. All the footage was genuine.

Were there omissions? Of course. It was a four minute video (there are only so many hours in the day) and I actually did want to try to stay as true to the lyrics as possible, leaving those watching with a sense of the over-riding message.

I am never quite sure what people mean (or think they mean) by the the term “populist”. If they mean ” a supporter of the rights and power of people” – which has always been my understanding of the word, then I certainly am. I am also unsure how you can be “mindlessly populist”…

Setting the World Trade Centre bombings to music? Even to the beat? And making images match the lyrics?

Disgusting.

Remove it now. People died, remember, it wasn’t just a television show.

Wisely they made no mention of the very progressive goals that Labour achieved in its first term, but it has been severely downhill since.