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And Finally Artist News
Kate Bush: Not a Tory
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 9 January 2019
Kate Bush is not a supporter of the Conservative Party and she’d really rather like it if you’d all stop saying that she is. Because that’s something some people have been saying for more than two years now, ever since she said in an interview that she thought then and somehow still UK Prime Minister Theresa May was “wonderful”.
The interview with Canadian magazine Macleans came shortly after the election defeat of Hillary Clinton by then and somehow still US President Donald Trump. In it, she was asked about a comment that her 1985 song ‘Waking The Witch’ was about “the fear of women’s power” and if that fear was “stronger than ever” in the wake of the presidential election.Bush responded by saying: “We have a female prime minister here in the UK. I actually really like her and think she’s wonderful. I think it’s the best thing that’s happened to us in a long time. She’s a very intelligent woman but I don’t see much to fear. I will say it is great to have a woman in charge of the country. She’s very sensible and I think that’s a good thing at this point in time”.
You could have taken issue with that statement on a number of levels at the time, based on May’s past political record and more recent actions as PM – and even more so now as the Brexit shambles drags on. Though most people’s response to that statement, then and since, has been something along the lines of: “Oh my God, as if the world wasn’t already bad enough, now I’ve discovered that Kate Bush is a massive Tory”.
Now, more than two years later, Bush has said that she’s given up hoping that that comment will go away on its own accord and so has decided to give it a kick. Actually, I think the problem is more that the comment itself did go away quickly, but the received wisdom that Kate Bush is a massive Tory remained. Either way, she would like you to know that this is not the case.
In a new update on her website, Bush says that her comment was “not meant to be political but rather was in the defence of women in power”.
She explains: “I felt [the interviewer] was putting a really negative slant on powerful women, referring to a witch hunt involving Hillary Clinton. In response, I said that we had a woman in charge of our country, and that I felt it was a good thing to have women in power. I should have been clearer when I then said it was the best thing that had happened to us for a long time – because I greatly disliked the behaviour of the previous PM, who at that point I felt had abandoned us and everybody felt angry and let down”.
Referencing the continued life of her original quote, she notes that “it could make it seem like I am a Tory supporter which I want to make clear I am not”.
So, hey, maybe 2019’s going to be alright after all.
