but he can't give us a 4 sentence glimpse as to what 2011 might bring?

Should old acquaintances be forgot? It's nice to see that Morrissey hasn’t.

This was an interesting letter. There is no doubt here about Morrissey’s unwavering commitment to animal rights. He is and will always remain dedicated to the cause. He makes some compelling arguments as to why both himself and Johnny Marr are not such great fans of David Cameron (and others i.e. the Royal Family, Jamie Oliver, etc.) however, this raises the complex question as to whether you can admire and enjoy someone’s work even though you disagree with his or her beliefs.

The Smiths didn’t make the The Queen is Dead for people like David Cameron to enjoy and yet, he amazingly does. (I do too; it’s my favorite Smiths album.) Morrissey can no longer enjoy Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music because astonishingly, he didn’t know until recently that Ferry was an avid hunter; a fact that was often made known here on this site for years. Don’t the songs remain the same even though Ferry’s lifestyle may not to everyone’s liking? What about all the Smiths and Morrissey fans who may be sympathetic to the cause of animal rights, but are not vegetarian/vegan?

I originally took Johnny Marr’s Twitter remark just to be a humorous example of hyperbole, perhaps in homage to The Man himself who is not a stranger to using dramatic language in order to get his point across.

I do, however, find it a little endearing to see these two men one again join forces, even if it only to express their similar ideals.

The language is a joy, the point is clear.

"If you can find the time, would you please write to the MP of your choice - if you can think of one that you half-trust - at The House of Commons, St Margaret's Street, London SW1P, urging them to vote against the repeal."

This is why I LOVE Morrissey...

(*and Marr.)

I'm not sure why Morrissey feels the need to have a go at David Beckham? I don't recall him ever fox hunting. He's an easy target and it's sad that Morrissey feels the need to belittle him. I think it says more about Morrissey's persecuted little mind than anything else. Leave Becks alone!

I don't like the tory leader being a fan of the smiths either, but what can you do? I wouldn't have wasted my time commenting personally. Maybe the tories are a subspecies? At least I never voted them in. Who did vote them in anyhow?

So he says he couldn't bear to appear with Cameron on the show, but that's not the full story because he just abandoned all Bona Drag promo completely. He had at least a couple of other high profile radio appearances lined up too. So this could well be revisionism on his part, to say that he just couldn't bear to be on the show with Cameron is dodgy.

you can imagine Morrissey's hands writing away in temper. His passion is still apparent, nice to see. But how did David Beckham get brought into it?

Morrissey has a special way of getting his message across, he's amazing!

This brings up an interesting point. If David Cameron should not be considered a real fan, or is disregarded as a fan by Morrissey/Marr, then why should ANY fan who hunts/eats meat be considered a fan? One could point out that David Cameron's condoning of hunting influences far more people, but I think it is only a matter of degree, not of substance. I've always been curious of the fans here who claim that they are not and will never be vegetarians, and still claim allegiance to all that is Morrissey.

think of all the foxes and badgers that could have been killed on the roads when thousands of people were driving from all over the UK to watch Morrissey in Liverpool last November.

For what "6 minutes"?

The least Morrissey could have done was come back on if only to make all the lost foxes and badgers lives sort of justified.

A fox not to be hunted.

Would Morrissey approve if I'd buy shoes made from cow skin if this particular cow had roamed the country side freely and died of old age?

...but stumped by Daily BRA?!

Morrissey's message reads like a cross between a MLK inspirational speech and a Viz editorial! The surfacing is welcome. A song popped into my mind as I read it: Tanita Tikaram's Twist in my Sobriety. And doesn't she even look a little like him?! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJdgSRzv8wE [youtube.com] , lyrics - http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Twist-in-my-Sobriety-lyrics-Tanita-Tikaram/3F9F44F054A48A104825698C00161105 [sing365.com]

..How he has a go at the queen then refers to Paul McCartney as SIR Paul McCartney. A title given by the Queen!

Moz. Not often does Morrissey make statements, but when he does he manages to get his point across with razor wit.

The term 'Bryan Ferret' made me laugh out loud!

Nice one Moz, from a fellow vegetarian and animal lover.

Cameron, I'd like to see you chased down by a pack of rabied convicts and torn to pieces. Dogs would be a cruel waste.

What will we do when he is gone? Reading this letter brightened up my day no end. Hilarious.

Hmmm a man of 50 calling Beckham Peckham,Ferry Ferret,Oliver Horrible is all rather childish and makes Moz sound petty. When making such a worthwhile statement about the horrific treatment of animals theres just no need for it.

A helpful background maybe? - http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-kellner/dear-labour-left-dont-reject-what-blair-understood-britain-has-changed-and-?utm_source=feedburn [opendemocracy.net]e r&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+opendemocracy+%28openDemocracy%29&utm_content=Twitter

"... For the overwhelming majority of us, our shared experiences are not of pain, struggle or oppression, or of the collective institutions that helped people to survive and fight back – trade unions, working-men’s clubs, the Co-op and, sometimes, churches. Today’s shared experiences and irritations are of credit cards, Tesco, mobile phones, MoT tests, Sky, mortgage-lenders, commuting, the Internet and the X-Factor. In ways that go far beyond anything David Cameron has said, the vast majority of us are indeed in this together..."

She's pro-fox hunting and she got to support Mozzer.

Either he's got double standards or he needs to do his research.

It's just so...well, sad and odd that Morrissey still isn't VEGAN. You would think that someone with such passion for the animals would take the small leap and eliminate dairy and leather.

It's the same industry Moz, you are somewhat to blame for suffering until you go all the way.

I think Morrissey's letter is admirable. He's a very loyal friend to Marr, and it's not only attractive and brave, but really displays how earnest a man Morrissey truly is by releasing his support with such a strong message.

I was touched by his letter...and saddened. Of course, he always makes me laugh with his play on names.

I honestly feel that Morrissey is the most extraordinary man alive, and no-one will ever change that view...

Morrissey. Thanks for your thoughtful and passionate communication today. I was particularly struck by your statement:

‘High Court judges on horseback, dressed in blood-red outfits, are the ones who kill.’

I agree. They, and other upper-class riff-raff, do so as part of a peer-bonding act that unifies them with the traditional landed gentry and their indentured serfs. The hunt is an act of communal mass hysteria which temporarily releases all participants from their various prisons of ‘civilised respectability‘. I just wish such predators would come out of the closet and boldly state “I hunt and kill because it turns me on”. Bloodlust excused as ‘pest control’ doesn’t stand up to cursory scrutiny.

Ditto the notion that this atavistic behaviour represents any tradition or heritage worth preserving. Simply preposterous. It’s just another part of the ‘let’s pretend it’s still the C19th’ backdrop to the ersatz English ‘countryside’: a toxic wasteland of chemicalised farming and animal death camps soon to be augmented by alien ‘feedlot‘ monstrosities. ‘Do we want a feedlot dairy farm in the UK?

http://organicgarden.org.uk/archives/5383 [organicgarden.org.uk]

Following the recent horror story of urban foxes attacking babies: will Cameron and Ferry be leading a hunt across Hackney Marshes disrupting 5-a-side football matches?

Linking this latest broadside with your recent ones on bearskins and, ahem, ‘subspecies’: as a thought experiment I find it useful to picture [Queen] Elizabeth Windsor on a visit to China or Korea. Visiting the local markets to observe historical traditions and cuisine customs. Perhaps she might see a few Corgis boiled alive, skinned and stir-fried for her to sample. No doubt there would be mass hypocritical apoplexy amongst the ’civilised’ hunting classes of Britain at this offence to our ‘animal loving‘ monarch. End of thought experiment.

Rainforests. ’Meat Is Murder’ on a personal level. And yes, ’Beef Is Biocide’ on a collective global consumer level now that all those Chinese and Indians want Big Macs and KFC on a daily basis. Unhappy planet, etc.

Cameron is endorsing bloodlust pure and simple. So much for any notion of a ’Big Society’. His vision is clearly not one that respects and values the revulsion of the many members of this soi-disant’ big society’ who will be appalled at the prospect of this attempt to re-legitimise blood ’sports’. It would have been good to see you challenge him on the telly - but I guess Andrew Marr would have stopped you in your tracks to stick to deferential protocol with the Prime Minister.

I googled on the subject of hunting and morbid eroticism and found the following insightful letter to The Independent in 2005 which explores the unexamined primeval urges seeking renewed ventilation under the veneer of ‘tradition’ and ‘rural exceptionalism’:

‘Fox-hunting ritualises the ancient thrill of the kill’ Sir: Mark Steel was spot on when he wrote "The real motivation [of foxhunters] of course is the thrill of the chase and the kill" (28 December). He might have added the ritual as a third crucial ingredient. Hunting is a profoundly primitive, atavistic, instinctual, ritualistic activity, tapping deep into the human psyche to connect with our hunter-gatherer past and the profound relationship with the natural world, particularly the animal kingdom, experienced by our forebears. Foxes are inedible, and the foxhunt is a ritual re-enactment of the ancient hunt, which nevertheless always had at its heart the spectacle of the death of a fellow living creature. Fox-hunting, to spell it out, is a ritualised confrontation with death, the greatest of the mysteries of human life. This is why, incidentally, drag hunting appears to be of little interest to fox-hunters. The French thinker and anthropologist Georges Bataille has written very interestingly about this confrontation in relation to the hunt. But, in his book L'Erotisme (1957) he has also linked our fascination with death with the realm of the erotic, elaborating

isn't morrissey wearing leather made doc martens in the live in dallas video?

I kind of assumed that Marr was more concerned about Cameron's policies towards humans.

For example, using the economic situation to force through a radical agenda that targets the poorer members of society and makes people beholden to corporations for all facets of their life. Also, by slashing the safety net, the fear of even temporary unemployment enables more effective wage suppression. The fear of student debt being a useful way to segregate people for economic exploitation - plus an informed and curious population is harder to deceive and control. Etc...

But, as I said, it was an assumption since I didn't see the original missive.

it is completely understandable to have your views and to be outspoken about them, but to forbid someone who doesn't share the same views from listening? that's just ridiculous. should morrissey also forbid any non-vegetarians/vegans from listening? where would he be then? it's just music, let whoever be a fan that wants to be.

Moz is fast becoming known as a sad bitter Queen. First the attack on China and now David Cameron,Beckham,Ferry,Oliver all get the same old treatment. This will probably cross over into the tabloids etc and is the kind of thing that makes and has made people hate him all these years. As someone else posted on here why not condem the Mexicans with their bullfighting and throwing goats from church roofs? Oh wait...Mexicans have great hair and teeth right? I think its time to stop reading the nonsense Moz comes out with and just listen to his incredible music. Sorry Moz but your jokes aren't funny anymore but rather pathetic schoolboy homeboy...David Peckham...oh my comedy gold...you should let Russell have that one! I also trust Moz and Marr are going to personaly pay Mr Cameron and every other Tory,Leather wearer and meat eater back the money they have spent on Smiths/Morrissey CDs,LPs etc. No I doubt it.Not even if a high court Judge says so!

This isn't a crank's view, it's based on hard evidence:

"...About global warming, Thầy recounted to Times Magazine the story about the couple who ate their son’s flesh – the story told by the Buddha in the Son’s Flesh Sutra. This couple, with their little child, on their way seeking asylum had to cross the desert. Due to a lack of geographical knowledge, they ran out of food, while they were only half way through the desert. They realized that all three of them would die in the desert, and they had no hope to get to the country on the other end of the desert to seek asylum. Finally, they made the decision to kill their little son. Each day they ate a small morsel of his flesh, in order to have enough energy to move on, and they carried the rest of their son’s flesh on their shoulders, so that it could continue to dry in the sun. Each time when they finished eating a morsel of their son’s flesh, the couple looked at each other and asked: “Where is our beloved child now?” Having told this tragic story, the Buddha looked at the monks and asked: “Do you think that this couple was happy to eat their son’s flesh?” “No, World Honored One. The couple suffered when they had to eat their son’s flesh,” the monks answered. The Buddha taught: “Dear friends, we have to practice eating in such a way that we can retain compassion in our hearts. We have to eat in mindfulness. If not, we may be eating the flesh of our own children.”

UNESCO reported that each day about 40,000 children die because of hunger or lack of nutrition. Meanwhile, corn and wheat are largely grown to feed livestock (cows, pigs, chickens, etc.) or to produce alcohol. Over 80 percent of corn and over 95 percent of oats produced in the United States are for feeding livestock. The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equivalent to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people, more than the entire human population on earth.

Eating meat and drinking alcohol with mindfulness, we will realize that we are eating the flesh of our own children.

In 2005, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) began an in-depth assessment of the various significant impacts of the world’s livestock sector on the environment. Its report, titled Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options, was released on November 29th 2006. Henning Steinfeld, chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior of the report, in the executive summary, asserts that: “The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution and loss of biodiversity. Livestock’s contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale and its potential contribution to their solution is equally large. The impact is so significant that it needs to be addressed with urgency” (page XX)1.

Land degradation: Presently, livestock production accounts for 70 percent of all agriculture land and 30 percent of the land surface of the planet. Forests are cleared to create new pastures, and it is a major driver of deforestation. For example, in Latin America some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing (page XXI)1. From these figures, we can see that the livestock business has destroyed hundreds of millions acres of forest all over the world to grow crops and to create pastureland for farm animals. Moreover, when the forests are destroyed, enormous amounts of carbon dioxide stored in trees are released into the atmosphere.

Climate change: The livestock sector has major impacts on the atmosphere and climate. It is responsible for “18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, which is a higher share than transport.” This means that raising animals for food gener

When he says he wants to protect all animals does he include the Chinese?

every genious has its dark sides...

"Stand for something or you'll fall for anything." I don't know who said this, but I applaud Morrissey's statement. We live in mediocre times. You can criticise Morrissey if you like, but you cannot deny his passion and determination. Morrissey keeps me hopeful... always.

Truly,
Ken Stavitzke

great(est?) songwriter.
dull(est?) essayist.

moz should stick to the writing that requires music accompaniment.
at best it's like reading scribbles from a mopey high school girl's notebook.
At worst, it's boring.
just sayin'.

If Ferry hunted the chinese race for sport, where would the daffodil arsed miserablist stand then? Well quite frankly Mr Shankly who cares! I'm having deep fried crispy beef, spare ribs and chilli chicken delivered in about 10 minutes...

Yummski !!!

And very funny, and not an American spelling in sight (at last!). Don't get the moaning on here, isn't this why we loved him. Shame he didn't want to challenge Cameron on live television though, missed opportunity. Perfect, although I do quite like Cameron shamefully.

Dear Morrissey: Just on the American news 2 December, was the story of 3,400 Brown Bears to be saved in the state of New Jersy. Yes, there are the inhumane/hunters who want to kill innocent free animals. But, many want to save this wonderful creature from the hands of fate. We simply state this news to "Thank You", Morrissey for all your efforts to save our free animals friends. News such as this should remind us all that your efforts and those of P.E.T.A. are not forgotten, or taken taken lightly. Not knowing British culture as do the native born, we fail to recognize any pleasure or delight in the "hunting" of foxes, or any free creature for sport! How dare people gang up by the dozens to chase some poor frightened and bewildered creature and chase them till their exhausted and cornered. This goes as well for American "hunters" as well. Have no fear friends of the forest and farm, we are here to save you. The end result of this horrid treatment towards our animal friends is Madd-Cow-Disease, now evident here in the States in the deer population. Once again, "Meat Is Murder", proves prophetic advise, as the murder may very well be the hunters and carnivores death inflicted on himself! The best to our animal friends and continue the boycott of animal products for food and clothing.

but i'm afraid Morrissey continues to talk utter rubbish.

have a fry up and relax, Moz.

Animals Are Not The World

Well there goes the future Roxy Music covers...

i think its the first time i've stopped reading a morrissey letter
i was bored before i got halfway through
his passion for meat is commendable, but a man who values animal life or human
needs his head tested
its tedious to read such drivel

No fresh news to this but a nice picture of the man.

http://www.nme.com/news/morrissey/54127 [nme.com]

Just got back from Animal Aid's Christmas Fayre. Guest Speaker was Brian May of Queen fame. He was promoting his charity www.save-me.org.uk devised as a direct result of the hunting ban repeal. He gave Cameron et al a good slagging. Funny to read this when I got back. There is something in the air. Suddenly it feels like the eighties again and people have awakened from their slumber! Good stuff!

I read Stephen Morrissey's "defence" of Johnny Marr. A few thoughts struck me.

1. If he despises royalty so much why is he calling Paul McCartney, sir. Addressing Paul McCartney by including sir, in that way is legitimising the royal family in my book.

2. Surely if he is going to revise his relationship with Roxy Music, one would think following Morrissey's (often warped) logic surely he now has to revise his relationship with Russell Brand. After Russell Brand played specifically in front of the queen, that in my view legitimises the royal family.

3. It shouldn't escape anyone's notice Morrissey's grasp of politics.One would have thought Morrissey would look at the human suffering the Tories are inflicting on ordinary people aided and abetted by the sniffingly unprincipled Liberal Democrat coalition partners.Both parties are ripping the heart out of working class communities, destroying third level education, pushing more and more people into poverty and unemployment through savage cutbacks. All simply to help pay for the multi millionaire Cameron's banker class friends hangover after their party. Not a chance, once again animal rights far outweigh Morrissey's concern.I get the impression Morrissey couldn't care less what pain and cruelty he is inflicting on the working class. More and more Morrissey sounds like a very bitter and twisted reactionary.His lowly attack on David Beckham (what has he got to do with the arguement?) is prove of how really nasty he has become.

Lastly , Morrissey, while you can make all sorts of tubthumping claims of Cameron having the blood of dead animals on his hands, you have the blood of Palestinians on your hands. Don't claim you don't know of the systematic abuse of human rights, denial of a homeland and the land grabbing Israel are engaged in on a daily basis against the Palestinians.It didn't bother you one iota. You were happy to play a gig in Tel Aviv and take the money, drenched in human blood. "This is not your country ", indeed Morrissey, indeed.

This was my he ditched the "cover star' concept on his sleeves. He realized that all his icons and idols ate meat , wore fur and voted Tory.

...should ask Morrissey to write a new song about the matter.

God, what an enjoyable read. A few bricks through a few specific windows, indeed. From the queen to Brian Ferry, no one is safe from his withering wit.

Name calling? Moz doesnt like been called 'Miserable Morrissey or the Pope Of Mope' yet its fine to do it about others? It seems alot of people think Morrissey has been extremely witty calling David Beckham David Peckham etc. So was the calling of this website So Low another comedy genius moment?

Im not vegetarian but fully respect those that are,also I dont condone hunting animals for sport or pleasure and would not want the hunting ban to be repealed. But while Morrissey is basically saying that anyone who does hunt or eat meat is not really welcome to be a fan he could do with looking at a few facts, He wont play Canada because of Seal hunting, but will play Norway and Russia where they do? He doesn't like China but will play Japan where they hunt Whales? Will play Mexico and Spain with their love of Bullfighting? how many times has he worn leather? I honestly do admire his passion regarding animals but If he is going to be so forceful with it then he needs to be more consistent with his argument.

The Guardian does cover the Moz's tut-tutting at David Chamelion - http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/dec/06/morrissey-johnny-marr-david-cameron [guardian.co.uk] - , ending on a jugular-aiming question:
"Morrissey does make some good points, among the slings and arrows. But for all our earnest listening, we can't help but feel distracted. This blogpost, after all, raises an enormous question: if Morrissey and Marr can agree on Cameron, could they perhaps agree on something else?"

What on Earth is he writing about? That's a quite absurd thing to say, let alone commit to print.

I was under the impression Marr was a tedious plonker with no discernable talent, who got the 'top job' simply because he was the only Guardian reader willing to ask softball questions of the world's worst politicians, now that Sir David has moved on to the great pasture in the sky for political journalists that is Al Jazeera.

B.

My god.... and the proudness she shows gives me the creeps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q1IBfCiJ1E8

It is most ignoble and ungallant of Mr. Morrissey to engage in the mockery of people's surnames by wordplay. I list the following:

Jammie Horrible for Jamie Oliver
Odious Ferret for Ottis Ferry
Bryan Ferret for Bryan Ferry
David Peckham for David Beckham
Fiasco Kate Middleton for Fiancee Kate Middleton.

At best Mr. Morrissey comes across as a bitchy and imperious ole queen and at worst as a pathologically immature man fast approaching retirement age. To engage in this kind of schoolyard name calling and childish wordplay at 51 years of age is nothing short of pathetic and betrays a complete lack of sophistication and maturity on Mr. Morrissey's part.

For someone who constantly claims to be holier than thou and better read than anyone he knows, it's not clever behavior; nor indeed is it dignified and gentlemanly behavior for someone who claims to be a paragon of manners and social etiquette.

The people listed above have done absolutely nothing to injure Mr. Morrissey personally or professionally; but instead of engaging in full verbal combat with David Cameron on television, with the strong possibility of disuading Mr. Cameron (who apparently worships Mr. Morrissey and The Smiths both in private and in public,) from repealing the Hunting Act, Mr. Morrissey choses to back away in a cowardly manner. He'd rather point his Tommy gun at easy targets like the Beckhams and Kate Middleton than point at the bulls eye and fire. Cameron could have been putty in his hand - and something constructive could have been achieved if both had engaged in a public debate about the issue. However, in terms of bravery Mr. Morrissey really is a disgrace to the animal welfare movement.

Who is HE afraid of?

Cameron!

Like a whimpering Victorian damsel languishing in her crinolines on the chintzy chaise lounge in the front parlour, waiting with bated breath to be administered the obligatory smelling salts by a vigilant chaperone, Mr. Morrissey is just a BIG WUSS! He is a scaredy cat when it comes to vocally fighting for his highly publicized principles in any public forum. Shame on him for being so RICH, so FAMOUS, so well read and INTELLIGENT and yet so unashamedly SPINELESS.

The BIG BALLS of famous street fighter and PETA supporter Chrissie Hynde he does not possess. Shame on Mr. Morrissey for having such strong views on the maltreatment of animals but not having the cajunas to join Chrissie on street demonstrations nor indeed to air his views publicly on a television programme; a programme that could not be lighter&fluffier than Mr. Marr's. A lot of animal suffering could have been prevented if Mr. Morrissey dared to fight for animals rights he has long felt passionate about; be it on television, radio, news print, media etc. Instead of feeling guilty about his own woeful lack of high profile involvement in the animal rights movement, HE likes to make other people feel guilty or stupid or both.

Of course, THIS FEAR of the television studios is never present when he’s trolling around like a meeja bore/whore flogging his latest CD, DVD, or latest tour etc etc. You see there’s no serious increment to his big bank account when discussing animal welfare on prime time TV; and the bottom line is that Mr. Morrissey doesn't want to alienate the many hordes of carnivores who buy his music.

Mr. Morrissey has an eye on the balance sheet not his own moral compass. This has always been the case and always will be. If Mr. Morrissey really cared about the baby bear who witnesses Mummy bear being slaughtered by the rug hunters then he would get off his arse and openly and passionately express disgust for these animal killers in front of the Prime Minster and The Queen and the public et al. That would take courage - a characteristic Mr. Morrissey does not seem to possess.

He's a wuss!

The Beckhams are of course easy targets. To heap scorn on a poorly educated footballer from the East End of London (weren’t East End footballers like the late Bobby Moore the

Is Morrissey contrary, prickly, spiky, opinionated, truculent, immovable, contradictory, headstrong, stubborn, (where's my thesaurus?) contumacious, inconsistent, intractable, obstinate, petulant, pugnacious, perverse even - of course he is! He's an artist. Please, Moz, don't ever grow up, don't ever change!

Moz cronies Russell Brand wears leather,Jonathan Ross wears a leather trenchcoat and eats meat and what about that trip to hug Lady Ga Ga. Perhaps next time she could wear that dress made of meat?