THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO

Bob Geldof has defended the revival of Band-Aid 40 after backlash from critics who claim the ‘colonial’ Christmas single perpetuates harmful stereotypes about Africa. 

Ed Sheeran and Fuse ODG are among those who have criticised the song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas? which has been condemned for fuelling pity rather than partnership.

London-born Ghanaian English rapper Fuse ODG spoke out, as he released a response called “We Know It’s Christmas” and urged the BBC not to promote the song.

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that treating the 1984 famine in Ethiopia – which originally inspired Band-Aid – as an Africa-wide issue would be similar to labelling all of Europe war-stricken due to the conflict in Ukraine.

It follows Sheeran’s admission that he would have politely refused to allow the charity hit to feature his voice, while other detractors have included Damon Albarn and Lily Allen.

But Bob Geldof hit back, saying: ‘It’s a pop song ffs.  There IS endemic hunger due to the unforgiving soil conditions. Water IS scarce save for a scattering of unreliable wells. Rain IS increasingly unreliable.

‘These are not ‘colonial tropes’ they are empirical facts… Climate change affects the poorest first and worst. War exacerbates these conditions. Xmas IS celebrated throughout Ethiopia according to their own calendar i.e. two weeks after our holiday.’

‘This little pop song has kept hundreds of thousands if not millions of people alive. Just today Band-Aid has given hundreds of thousands of pounds to help those running from the mass slaughter in Sudan and enough cash to feed a further 8,000 children in the same affected areas of Ethiopia as 1984.’

Alongside artists like Sting and Harry Styles, the 33-year-old singer first appeared on the 2014 version of the song, which was led by Geldof and Midge Ure and was intended to generate money for the Ebola relief efforts.

However, in the lead-up to the 2024 Ultimate Mix of the song’s 40th anniversary, Ed has stated that if he had been asked to contribute his voice to the new version, he would have refused.

Taking to his Instagram stories on Sunday, Sheeran: ‘My approval wasn’t sought on this new Band Aid 40 release and had I had the choice I would have respectfully declined the use of my vocals.

‘A decade on and my understanding of the narrative associated with this has changed, eloquently explained by @fuseodg. This is just my personal stance, I’m hoping it’s a forward-looking one. Love to all x.’

An invitation to participate in the 2014 version of Do They Know It’s Christmas, which had revised lyrics addressing the Ebola outbreak that was then plaguing West African nations, was turned down by Fuse ODG himself.

He has now written on his Facebook page: ‘Ten years ago today, I said NO to Bob Geldof’s Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas project due to the fact it’s a campaign that dehumanises Africans and destroys our pride and identity in the name of ‘charity’.

This should probably be put to bed. We must support our own Bob, therefore it’s time to perform a song for the homeless, aged, and other impoverished people in the UK.

Although millions have been pushed into Africa, their birth rate has been rising daily, and they are no better off than they were forty years ago.

Charity begins at home.

However, if people want to give their money to charities that is up to them, it’s their money, and I do take my hat off to Geldof, at least he tried to do something and raise awareness of what was going on.

According to eco-tycoon Dale Vince, bacon should have tobacco-style health warnings on its packaging since the meat raises the risk of cancer.

The millionaire Labour donor, 63, appeared to suggest treating the rashers like cigarettes by placing them behind ‘roller shutter doors’. 

Vince, who is a vegan, said we shouldn’t be putting a picture of a face of a ‘happy pig’ on the packs with the medical science ‘very clear that eating more plants and less animals is better for our health’.

The World Health Organisation in 2015 classified ‘processed meats’ as a class one carcinogen alongside tobacco, which means there is ‘sufficient’ proof that they induce cancer.

Vince, the CEO of green firm Ecotricity, even suggested introducing a ‘meat tax’ as a way to put people off consuming bacon.

Talking to The Sunday Times and BBC Radio 4’s A Week in Westminster, he said: ‘Now look what we do with tobacco. We hide it behind roller shutter doors, we stick it in unbranded packages with pictures of diseased organs on the front. That’s how we deal with tobacco.

‘Bacon? We stick it in a supermarket, we stick the face of a happy pig on it and we say to people, it’s OK, but we know that it’s not OK.’

In support of the non-profit group Vegan FTA’s push for plant-based diets in NHS hospitals, Vince has joined Chris Packham.

He stated altering what we eat is the ‘biggest single thing we can do’ to make people healthier and lower carbon emissions.

‘The role for government is to give us better advice, to put health warnings on meat and dairy products, to change the menu in the NHS and our public institutions,’ he stated.

Sir Keir Starmer last week told the Cop29 climate meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, that he will not be ‘telling people how to live their lives’ despite placing an ambitious target to slash emissions in the UK by 81 pence by 2035. 

‘We are not going to start dictating to people what they do,’ the Prime Minister said. 

‘But we are going to be clear that that involves hitting the clean power 2030 mission that we have set out, one of the five big projects of the Government.’

Last year, scientists demanded that supermarket meat packets be labelled with health warnings similar to those on tobacco products to deter potential customers.

I’m tired of the government being pressured to impose their products on us by those with obvious interests in alternative endeavours. They ought to keep their distance from us and simply mind their own business.

There is a giant movement to substitute meat with another primary source of protein – insects, and it’s got nothing to do with climate change, or saving the planet, but it’s got everything to do with making an affordable, easily mass-produced product, which will then free up land for expansion and create huge profits for food producers. Of course, consumers won’t see the words ‘insects’ on the packets, they will just see the word ‘protein.’

Sometime in the future, we will be saying, ‘I can’t decide whether to have a bag of Smoky Crickets or Cockroach cocktail.’

After all, he who pays the piper calls the tune. Because the rich buy influence. I was being sarcastic, but the donors get listened to more than the poor voters.

Political donations from any party or organisation to a political party or Member of Parliament should be prohibited, and no one should be able to purchase influence. We have the largest hypocrite in charge right now, greed is destroying the nation, and political honesty is at an all-time low.

According to senior Russian MPs, President Joe Biden’s administration allegedly approved Ukraine’s use of US-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets within Russia, marking a “big step towards World War Three.”

The decision, which was made in the last days of the Biden administration and on the eve of the 1000th day of the war in Ukraine, sparked a barrage of dire warnings from Russian legislators.

‘This is a very big step towards the beginning of the Third World War,’ said Putin-loyalist Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the upper house and a retired security service general.

He slammed the move from Biden – ‘a departing old man who will no longer be responsible for anything in two months’.

Hardline Liberal-Democatic party leader Leonid Slutsky said: ‘Biden has apparently decided to end his presidential term and go down in history as Bloody Joe.

‘It will mean only one thing – direct US participation in the military conflict in Ukraine, which will inevitably entail the harshest response from Russia, based on the threats that will be created for our country.’

Russian senator Andrey Klishas said: ‘The West has decided on a level of escalation that could end with the remnants of Ukraine completely losing their statehood.’

The significant shift in Western strategy has not yet been addressed by Putin himself.

But in October, he warned that long-range missile strikes on his territory would mean the West was ‘at war with Russia’ because only NATO specialists – and not Ukrainians – could fix these missiles onto their targets. 

‘If this is the case, then, bearing in mind the change in the very essence of this conflict, we will make appropriate decisions based on the threats that will be posed to us,’ Putin said.

One Russian official called on Britain and France to reject the Biden administration’s strategy of permitting Ukraine to station long-range missiles called Storm Shadow and SCALP within Russia.

Le Figaro reported, without confirmation, that both London and Paris were reevaluating their stance following months of rejecting Zelensky’s requests to unleash the terrifying weapons against Russian targets.

Senior Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov, the Kremlin’s permanent representative to international organisations in Vienna, said: ‘They have a chance to reconsider their position if they are truly concerned about European security.

‘There is no longer room for primitive political games.’

Although Biden’s decision has not been formally announced, it has received extensive coverage in the United States, and Downing Street has yet to respond.

It is not only careless but downright sabotage for Biden’s government to be promoting such extreme measures in its last days.

Trump’s explicit mandate from voters to pursue peace via strength rather than escalation is undermined by this action.

It’s no secret that Biden is unfit to lead, and now his handlers are scrambling to cement chaos before competent leadership takes over, and every unnecessary escalation drags America to a catastrophic conflict, risking countless lives.

Instead of careless brinkmanship, the world needs strength and diplomacy.

War is a cowardly act on the part of the leaders who send hundreds of thousands of men and women to their deaths from the comfort of their palatial homes, and you can bet that Zelensky’s bank account is well fortified by all of this.

This is crazy – old Biden’s last huzza, designed to queer the pitch of the incoming Trump administration, which is irresponsible, breaks unwritten conventions in a way that an outgoing administration should not act, but I do wonder how Trump is going to clean up this mess?

Downing Street issued a grovelling apology to British Hindus today after serving meat and alcohol at a Diwali celebration.

After a backlash, No 10 admitted a ‘mistake’ had been made in organising the event, pledging ‘it will not happen again’.

Although there is no explicit ban on drinking alcohol or eating meat in Hinduism, many Hindus opt not to, and others are vegetarians.

Those voicing concerns included Shivani Raja, the Conservative MP for Leicester East, who said it showed a ‘disappointing lack of knowledge’.

A No 10 spokeswoman said, ‘The Prime Minister was pleased to welcome a range of communities celebrating Diwali to a reception in Downing Street.

‘He paid tribute to the huge contribution the British Hindu, Sikh, and Jain communities make to our country and how the government is driven by the shared values of hard work, ambition, and aspiration.

‘A mistake was made in the organisation of the event. We understand the strength of feeling on this issue and so would apologise to the community and assure them it will not happen again.’

Diwali is the Hindu Festival of Light, symbolising the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. 

Since 2009, Downing Street has commemorated the occasion with a reception.

It became well-known when Rishi Sunak, the first Hindu prime minister of Britain, was in office. He was seen lighting traditional candles with his family to commemorate the event.

In a letter to Sir Keir, Ms Raja said she was ‘greatly concerned’ to hear that attendees of this year’s celebration were offered meat and alcohol.

‘I feel this speaks poorly against the organisation of this year’s event—with a disappointing lack of knowledge of the customs and traditions that many British citizens hold dear,’ she said.

‘As a practicing Hindu, representing thousands of Hindus within my own constituency of Leicester East, I have been deeply saddened to hear that this year’s festivities were overshadowed in the greatest Office of State by negativity as a result of this oversight.’

This is a perfect example of Keir Starmer’s lack of attention to detail. That’s one thing even Rishi Sunak would have got right. If Starmer can’t get an event like that right, I wouldn’t hold out much for fixing the foundations of our country.

This Labour government is so out of depth and they don’t have a clue how to run the UK, and in the end, they will cause so much harm and it will drive this country into ruin. If they don’t change their ill-thought-out budget and expand the minimum wage among other things, they will have no choice but to step down and call another election.

And why is the UK even commemorating such an occasion? Our British values are not at all like this!

It seems that Starmer is only interested in keeping one, particular demographic happy, and it’s not the Indigenous, hard-working taxpayers.

Let’s face it, English isn’t the first language of many in the service in the catering industry now. They probably misread the instructions, and where it said ‘Hindu’, they probably thought it said ‘Hen do.’

We don’t even have to say much about our new Labour government, we now just know they’re all useless!