Enormous social changes have occurred since 1985. In this post-liberal age, we have simply outgrown “pop star politics”, as we have outgrown progressive education and a lax penal code. The notion that rock stars can save the world is a ludicrous relic of the discredited Sixties. In an era of intellectual specialization, the belief that plonking away on a bass guitar instantly qualifies one to pass comment on obtuse economic issues is absurd. Rock music is a business like any other, so its practitioners are automatically disqualified from assuming any kind of moral transcendence. The assumption that Africa can only progress courtesy of white bourgeois intervention is laughably paternalistic. This brand of convoluted liberal racism has a long pedigree and largely explains the patronising, “white” nature of Live8. Name and address withheld
How times have changed. It’s this kind of PC thinking that will ensure that the spirit of the original Live Aid can never be recaptured. Then it was an amazingly spontaneous event that more than achieved its aims. Now it has to be cut down to size with quotas. Are there any disabled performers, are there enough gay acts? Let’s fret about this and ignore the cause for which Live8 stands for. At least Bob Geldof goes out there and makes things happen - what do his critics do? Carole Tyrrell, London
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