doctorvee

Chicken Yoghurt has a great post on all of this Live 8 business.

There’s been a lot of bad reaction to Live 8 actually, hasn’t there? Everybody’s complaining that there are no black artists in the lineup. Even my mother complained that they’re all too old — Bob Geldof’s buddies.

Everybody thinks that Bob Geldof is some kind of saint (I get this from my friend all the time; he thinks Geldof can do no wrong). He is not a saint — he is an ass. Of course it’s a good thing to bring attention to poverty in Africa, but this Live 8 business is a diversion from the real issue. Live 8 isn’t about making poverty history; it’s about a bunch of bland, rich pop stars slapping each other’s backs. He said so himself.

It’s going be a party. I like parties, I’m quite good at organising them and this is going to be the biggest party ever held.

And now he’s wanting a million people to go to Edinburgh. Ehem. Has he actually ever been to Edinburgh? The population of Edinburgh is well under 500,000. Geldof wants to somehow magically triple the city’s capacity for a day out. A million extra people won’t fit in Edinburgh. Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations — we’re always told it’s the biggest party of the night — are capped at 125,000 people. And now that Geldof has made this ridiculous plea and refused to back down, the centre of attention is not now poverty in Africa but whether or not Edinburgh can safely hold a million people. Well done Bob!

Why Edinburgh anyway? Gleneagles isn’t in Edinburgh, it’s way over there.

Update: Views also from Chris Applegate and Will Howells.