The whole business of the comments of Aidan Burley MP on Twitter decrying the praised-to-the-rooftops 2012 Olympic opening ceremony staged by Trainspotting director Danny Boyle as “leftie multicultural crap” are obviously preposterous. Surely even the most hardened cynic would have melted at the spectacular display. Both that and the tremendous goodwill displayed at the torch ceremonies have turned attititudes around. The example, lamentable though it is, has arrived just in time to get a mention in a paragraph of my next book. Here is an exclusive sneak preview:

…In 2012 the “misunderstood” tweet of Aidan Burley MP at the Olympics “Bring back red arrows (sic), Shakespeare and the Stones!” rendered him even more ridiculous as rhythm and blues, which is the essence of the Rolling Stones sound, is intrinsically multicultural, rooted in black America. As Philip Norman (2002:33) describes music was their escape route from suburbia before they adopted their now familiar stage personas: “Mike [sic] Jagger listened to Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf, giants of the urban blues with heart-shivering voices, calling and answering their virtuoso guitars, that could change the view beyond the lace curtains from Kentish suburbia to the dark and windy canyons along Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive.”

The music emerging from contemporary suburbia continues to be moulded by multi-ethnicity..

It then goes on to talk about grime and dubstep from Croydon. The Stones were from Dartford, Kent where there is now a Mick Jagger arts centre and Sir Mick, as he now is, is also patron-funder of the Red Rooster project to encourage local primary school children to take up playing musical instruments. They played their first gig 50 years ago in suburban Ealing.

As for the idiotic MP as Phillip Schofield ‏@Schofe (hardly a dangerous radical) tweeted to his 1.72million followers:

oh dear @AidanBurleyMP what an arse!

It was retweeted 652 times at last count.

Labourlist by the way has launched a campaign to unseat Burley and the Labour party has announced it as an early selection. Details here. Ex footballer Stan Collymore has said he’d happily stand via twitter although not announced for who yet – in 140 characters I guess he couldn’t go into too much detail.