The Telegraph goes radio gaga

The Telegraph has got itself in all of a tizz today over BBC radio deciding – understandably – not to play a naff novelty record criticising the government’s decision to means-test winter fuel payments.

Freezing This Christmas by Sir Starmer and the Granny Harmers uses the tune of Mud’s Lonely This Christmas to attack the fuel payments cut, with such bitingly satirical lyrics as: “It’ll be freezing this Christmas, without fuel at home, it’ll be freezing this Christmas, while Keir Starmer is warm.”

The BBC has declined to put the track on the playlists of any of its radio stations, much to the chagrin of the Telegraph, which appears to believe it should be blasting from Radio 1 (tasked by the BBC Trust with targeting, er, 15-29-year-olds).

Its fury makes the front page under the headline “Chart-topping anti-Labour hit being silenced by the BBC”, while inside, right-wing foghorn George Chesterton – who earlier this week was fuming that a young woman who threw a milkshake at Nigel Farage wasn’t jailed for her first offence – was even more furious, declaring the move would “backfire on the foolish BBC”.

Might this be the same Telegraph that, in 2013, demanded the BBC refuse to play Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead after it reached number two in the charts following the death of Margaret Thatcher?

Back then, the paper rounded up a number of anti-BBC voices to attack the corporation, with former Conservative party treasurer Lord McAlpine saying he was “absolutely astounded” that the corporation was even considering broadcasting the song and MP Gerald Howarth claiming it would be “a dereliction of duty and potentially a violation of its charter” were it to air the ditty.

In the end the Beeb got around the problem by only playing a short snippet of the song in its weekly chart show, with presenter Jameela Jamil then linking to a Newsbeat reporter who explained why the song was in the charts – a perfect precedent for it to cite in the unlikely event the Starmer-haters do top the hit parade!