Interpol & Billy Bragg respond to Morrissey's support of far-right For Britain party

Morrissey continues to double-down on his support of the far-right For Britain political party, defending its leader, Anne Marie Waters, saying she is not racist and offering this reasoning in a new “interview” on his website: “Everyone ultimately prefers their own race … does this make everyone racist? The people who reduce every conversation down to a matter of race could be said to be the most traditionally ‘racist’ because everything in life is NOT exclusively a question of race, so why make it so?” He says a lot more, as he usually does, about a lot of things, and you can read the whole thing here.

As Stereogum points out, Morrissey has been the subject of other artists’ interviews this week, including Interpol who will be touring with Morrissey this summer. Talking to Hot Press, Paul Banks mostly dodged the subject, saying, “We thought it would be a good show for our band. That’s how I’m looking at it. I don’t get too much into the other stuff.” The Morrissey/Interpol tour hits NYC at Forest Hills Stadium on September 7.

Billy Bragg, who toured with The Smiths in the ’80s and has had Johnny Marr play on a few of his albums, had a lot more to say when talking with The Big Issue:

I think he’s decided that he wants to betray everything he ever said in the Smiths, and he’s broken the hearts of a lot of people…

The Smiths expressed a lot of people’s own sense of disconnect with society and helped them to find their own identity, and he’s totally trashed that. I’m heartbroken for them because I’m a big Smiths fan, too. And I’m heartbroken for Johnny Marr because he’s genuine, a lovely guy, and he doesn’t deserve to have his legacy dragged through the dirt…

I have no sympathy for [Morrissey], no respect for him, but I have a lot of sympathy and respect for his audience.

Morrissey, meanwhile, has responded to a story in The Independent about his “everyone prefers their own race” statement: “‘Morrissey reaffirms support for far-right party’ is today’s headline in The Independent. They offer this absolute lie because they know they can get away with it,” Morrissey writes. (He reaffirmed his support of For Britain in that interview, his contention is with “far right.”) “They will not be challenged. De-platforming and destroying lives is the principle motivation of modern journalism. And so be it.”