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  • 4/30/2025
Belfast rap trio Kneecap have been branded "horrific" and "ignorant" after appearing to call for fans to "kill their local MP" in resurfaced concert footage.Footage from a November 2023 gig has sparked widespread condemnation and an investigation by counter-terrorism police, as one member of the band appears to say: "The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP."FULL STORY HERE.
Transcript
00:00what do you make of those comments from kneecap i mean clearly horrific clearly ignorant clearly
00:06ill-informed i suspect from their point of view fairly fairly self-serving because you look at
00:12their website and i just googled their website this morning and i'm quoting you know what they
00:17say about themselves they say we are an anti-establishment explosive delivery artist
00:23and they want to do anti-establishment lyrics so they naively and ignorantly think that
00:28anti-establishment is supporting murder terrorist organizations and murdering democratically
00:35elected mps yes they've apologized to the fans of the two mps who were murdered but they seem to be
00:41encouraging people to behave in that way and the frightening thing about these sort of comments from
00:47young music acts is they influence teenagers so teenagers in school who like this group may
00:53think this kind of behavior is acceptable and that's what's really scary about it people like
00:58you and me will be offended and upset but we're not going to go out and act on it but if you're a 16
01:02year old at school who's angry and a pop group you idolize say you can kill people as a way forward
01:09that then has repercussions we can only imagine with the world uh jonathan that they are entering into but
01:17it's very different than the world they were cultured and that they were brought up in believe me
01:22uh what they have said i don't think will make much of a fuss or cause much of a fence uh where they're
01:28from and how they have been uh groomed in a certain area so um there's no point people really getting very
01:36annoyed about that but i think they will realize that they're in a different area and they've got
01:42to play by the rules in this area or else the consequences could be pretty bad for them you're
01:50absolutely right amen of course you know your own background in northern ireland you you've seen things
01:54that people and me and ellie can only imagine because clearly our background and upbringing is
01:59very different than yours and your personal life journey however they now have a global platform when
02:03they go to glass to be when they go to coachella which is the class with america and make these
02:08massively provocative statements the fans there and the people listening and watching haven't had
02:13the northern island experience they're people from towns and cities all over the world and they're just
02:18hearing pop groups they idolize support violence and murder and and and yes they may be excluded and
02:25in a strange kind of way they might look at being excluded as an example of why they're angry
02:30and they probably like the fact we're debating this morning that's even a worse situation because we're
02:34we're giving we're giving them all to us and the sad thing is so they're probable fan base they
02:39probably like this because it's like remember years ago when the sex pistols were banned or frank
02:44goes to hollywood were banned it actually made them bigger yeah um kneecap have said this let's just
02:49be clear about how they have apologized they've said let's be unequivocal we do not and never have
02:54supported hamas or hezbollah we condemn all attacks on civilians always it is never okay we know this more
03:01than anyone given our nation's history we also reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite
03:07violence against any np or individual ever and an extract of the footage deliberately taken out of
03:13all context is now being exploited and weaponized as if it were a call to action to the amos and to the
03:19cox families we send you our heartfelt apologies we never intended to cause you any hurt uh is that
03:26enough jonathan or what do you think they need to add to that or do well if you look at their websites
03:34and their language and not that i listen to the lyrics but i have seen the headlines of what they
03:38said themselves what they said themselves and the way they speak is vastly different to that press
03:43statement that's press statement is written by a clever pr professional or their record label try and
03:48protect the value of the asset of the group that is not a statement from you know the three young men in
03:54the band really caring that's a statement by clever pr professionals jonathan just briefly do you think
04:00they should play glastonbury this summer totally not and i can't imagine a million years they will
04:05because glastonbury is endorsed by the bbc clearly and glastonbury gives joy to tens of millions in
04:14this country probably hundreds of millions around the world and a national broadcast platform and
04:19i mentioned the word the bbc it's not about the bbc it could be gb news if gb news are
04:23were broadcasting glastonbury i can't imagine for one moment that glastonbury not going to remove
04:29the invitation because just imagine they go on a glastonbury stage say something outrageous it will
04:34get filmed on thousands and thousands of phones will get broadcast to millions even if not on the bbc
04:40it'll end up being seen by millions of people through social media and that will say to young
04:44people influenced by these type of people that it's okay to say these kind of things and that's what's
04:49really frightening to me having having children is that these children think these people are superstars
04:56and they think these people should be looked up to

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