Sting: 'We're in a very dangerous political climate'

Young British people have been robbed of the opportunity to experience Europe.

Give it a rest you multimillionaire champagne socialist. You are so detached from reality. Anyone can travel to Europe, just show your passport, if you are too lazy to do that then you must not want to go that badly. What utter Hyperbolic none sense, I guess he is desperate to stay relevant to youngsters.

Great.Would love to see The Police,too.

"It has left them vulnerable to demagogues, to right-wing nonsense, fakes, snake oil salesmen."

Couldn’t agree more.

These days are way more unstable that in the time of the cold war.

At least back in the days you had two super powers sided by minor allies and they both kept a balance in the world.

Now we have many crazy variants and more autonomous and terrorism.

And on the top of that a breed of new politicians less capable than the old guard.

Sting... His music was never exactly my cup of tea but I can't say anything bad about the guy. He's absolutely right about the vaccines. I'm surprised about Eric Clapton. Thought he would have been smarter than that.

"Young British people have been robbed of the opportunity to experience Europe. It's insane."

Help me out here - young British people are banned from entering Europe now, you say?

I'm surprised about Eric Clapton. Thought he would have been smarter than that.

Is it smart to demand other people take some action with their bodies against their will?

When it comes to the abortion debate, some say that it’s a woman’s right to do what she wants with her body. I wonder where those people come down with respect to vaccine mandates?

I know several sensible people who have forgone the opportunity to get vaccinated, and don’t hold it against them. It’s their personal freedom to choose. We are not a herd of cows.

‘Political leaders you don’t need to put on a red light..’

I know several sensible people who have forgone the opportunity to get vaccinated, and don’t hold it against them.

I know several people who haven't been vaccinated. They're still friends, but I'm not willing to meet them in person until they have a silver bullet against Covid.

It's heartening to see a senior British musician talking sense for a change. Sting's a good man, even if some of his music's a bit dull. I read an interview with him when I was a kid in which he discussed reading Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow; I borrowed the book from our local library and was transfixed. Nice one Gordon.

I'm not willing to meet them in person until they have a silver bullet against Covid.

So, to be sure I understand correctly, will you be asking for proof from your friends before / when you meet them?

And even if they were vaccinated, that doesn’t mean they cannot be carrying the virus, anyway… right? Or you think the vaccine is a silver bullet?

So, to be sure I understand correctly, will you be asking for proof from your friends before / when you meet them?

I was supposed to meet up with a friend in Tokyo last week. I asked him if he was vaxxed, he said no, so I said I wasn't ready to meet up yet. He understood, it was a pretty easy confirmation.

I've met up with other friends. They said they were vaxxed. I trust my friends not to lie. If I found out after the fact they had lied to me, I wouldn't be friends with them anymore. I don't have any reason to think any of them are lying though.

And even if they were vaccinated, that doesn’t mean they cannot be carrying the virus, anyway… right? Or you think the vaccine is a silver bullet?

No, but it's very effective. People who have had the vaccine are less contagious, and less likely to catch the virus in the first place. So I take what I consider to be a reasonable risk. Same as I do every time I leave the house these days. It's all about finding a reasonable balance.

@Strangerland You are going to make yourself friendless.

There are many intelligent musicians out there, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison are only two of them.

@Strangerland You are going to make yourself friendless.

Eh? Most of my friends have been vaccinated. Most of our society has been vaccinated. I'm not worried about running out of friends. If I were an anti-vaxxer it would probably be on my mind though. I don't have friends unwilling to see me, just the other way around.

Wants everyone to be vaccinated at his concert but won't enforce it? What a hypocrite!

There are many intelligent musicians out there, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison are only two of them.

Clapton does have a history of serious substance abuse and has flown off into unhinged racist rants in the past.

Van Morrison is a notorious sulking child. Roadies and audiences have very often been on the receiving end of his dummy spitting.

Not the most temperamentally balanced characters you’re going to come across.

Hardly people I’d take too seriously on too many topics. I’d listen to Clapton regarding guitar playing and Morrison on songwriting, but not too much else.

Why not enforce vaccinations at his concerts if he wants everyone to be vaccinated?

Not musically his biggest fan, but everything he says makes perfect sense up to that point. Is it an issue with event organizers? Concerts seem like a prime situation where vaccinations should absolutely be mandatory. Many people in a closer space, probably yelling and being loud.

fxgai,

Thedifference is one is a pandemic and the other is an abortion. Completely different!

"For me, Brexit is a personal tragedy. I'm sad for my country. We knew it was going to be a disaster and we have to accept this, but I'm not happy," he said. "Young British people have been robbed of the opportunity to experience Europe. It's insane."

A mind numbing ignorant, ludicrous statement.

The UK has left a political union, heading irrevocably towards a federal superstrate, with little or no mandate or accountability, authority from EU citizens.

Gordon Sumner (planet Sting) seriously believes that when the UK democratically chose to leave the EU.

So in Sumner blinkered idiocy, UK has been banned from holidaying in Europe, so in effect , robbed of the opportunity to experience Europe.

Silly Sumner views the EU and Europe as a single entity.

I think the reason he won't enforce Vaccinations is the obvious one...he'll lose too much money!

Hence hypocrite.

Yes this not meeting people who are unvaxxed by people who are vaxxed seems alittle over the top. If the vaccines are so good why would you care???

Sting is right, but I'm not sure where he gets his optimism from. Living in a mansion perhaps? It's just a question of time before one of the new border disputes kicks off an increasingly larger conflict. The new Sarajevo: Poland and Belarus, US and China or India and China? Lay your bets.

-TokyoJoe

Supporting Brexit from Tokyo? That's patriotic of you. A bit like all those Scots who support independence from the Caribbean.

By experience he means living and working in Europe without endless paperwork and visas. Marrying someone from another country and being able to live with them. Moving staff and goods easily and cheaply across the channel. Retiring to another country. And touring in Europe, which is very difficult for most British bands and orchestras now.

Don't worry. Some of us remainers have moved on and have found it possible to extract something positive from Brexit. After decades of caring about the UK and having an emotional bond with it, I am now liberated. You Brexiteers have won the UK, you control it (from Westminster, or in your case Tokyo) and it's all yours. I have 'consciously uncoupled' from the UK. I have no stake in the place any more.

Anyone can travel to Europe, just show your passport

You're fully cognisant that Sting meant the freedom to perform, start a business and work anywhere from Abisko to Zaragoza, so spare us the outraged, faux naïf act.

Feel free to visit any time, yes. Just ensure you have a return ticket, enough funds to support yourself, an international driving licence and the extra insurance and carnets your didn't need pre-Brexit.

Do enjoy the longer queues and roaming charges. And leave the ham sarnies at home, there's a good chap.

Same practical advice @Mickelicious 10:50am. - Thanks.

*“Do enjoy the longer queues and roaming charges. And leave the ham sarnies at home, there's a good chap.” *

https://www.ladbible.com/news/news-dutch-officials-say-welcome-to-brexit-as-they-take-drivers-sandwich-20210112

Not right, those political conflicts are constant over hundreds or more years. We are now under a severe pandemic danger. That’s what to only care about now, otherwise the communists , center democrats , liberals and neo-rights can debate altogether in their neighboring graves, do you anyhow understand a percent or more of what I am saying?

Thedifference is one is a pandemic and the other is an abortion. Completely different!

No - one is a vaccine, the other is an abortion.

Should people be free to choose what happens to their own bodies or not?

(Personally I think the abortion issue is far more complicated than the vaccine one - an abortion actually ends a life!!!)

By experience he means living and working in Europe without endless paperwork and visas. 

Kind of like living in any place, isn’t it?

I can only comment on that from my Japan experience though.

The Europeans could make paperwork easier if they want to.

In any case it’s a far cry from anyone being “robbed” of experiencing Europe, surely.

(Actually, unlike other commenters I have a couple of Sting albums and quite like his music)

 I have 'consciously uncoupled' from the UK. I have no stake in the place any more.

When you were young were you one of those kids that if they were losing the football match they would take their ball home?.

Don't worry. Some of us remainers have moved on and have found it possible to extract something positive from Brexit. After decades of caring about the UK and having an emotional bond with it, I am now liberated. You Brexiteers have won the UK, you control it (from Westminster, or in your case Tokyo) and it's all yours. I have 'consciously uncoupled' from the UK. I have no stake in the place any more.

I have family and friends in the UK and care about what damage Brexit will do to their livelihoods and standard of living. Richard Hughes of the Office of Budget Responsibility is predicting the economic damage from Brexit will be higher than the damage from Covid. One group’s opinion, but the short term damage is undeniable. Maybe Jacob Rees-Mogg’s claim that we will see the fruits of Brexit in 50 years might be some consolation…

Speaking from a selfish point of view, I own a house in the UK and am concerned about what the effects will be on house prices.

Still, even if I didn’t have a financial stake in this, I couldn’t just ‘uncouple’ from it that easily.

My biggest worry is that post-Brexit UK is being shaped by a government led by the most preposterous leader in my lifetime.

, I own a house in the UK and am concerned about what the effects will be on house prices.

Ahh some honesty, you don't want young people to be able to get on 'the property ladder' instead just constant unrelenting property price increases for your selfish needs. I guess the other guy on here is at risk of losing his holiday home in the south of France, it's always middle class wealthy people criticizing working class people.

, I own a house in the UK and am concerned about what the effects will be on house prices. 

Ahh some honesty, you don't want young people to be able to get on 'the property ladder' instead just constant unrelenting property price increases for your selfish needs. I guess the other guy on here is at risk of losing his holiday home in the south of France, it's always middle class wealthy people criticizing working class people

Delirium.

Don’t working class people want their house price to go up? I’m from a working class background in Liverpool. My mum, a retired tailor, wants her house price to go up. So does my electrician mate, my painter and decorator uncle...

We are not talking million quid properties in Knightsbridge here.

Selfish needs? Not wanting the arse to fall out of the housing market now makes you a moustache-twirling vulture capitalist?

I take it you don’t own any property.

I'm surprised about Eric Clapton. Thought he would have been smarter than that.

Clapton is an out-and-out racist.

Love Sting. Intelligent, cares about people and the environment and made some great records with The Police.

As for Clapton, clearly all that smack he banged up his arm has killed off his braincells. Ironic that he suddenly has a fear of needles.

middle class wealthy people criticizing working class people

Class warriors lash out at peers who didn't piss their pay away yet are so in thrall to old Etonians.

Wants everyone to be vaccinated at his concert but won't enforce it? What a hypocrite!

If he enforced it you’d call him a tyrant. What a hypocrite!

Bob Fosse

Wants everyone to be vaccinated at his concert but won't enforce it? What a hypocrite!

If he enforced it you’d call him a tyrant. What a hypocrite! "

No I'd call him consistent and or a man of principle! Not a money grubber following the herd mood!

If he enforced it you’d call him a tyrant. What a hypocrite! "

No I'd call him consistent and or a man of principle! Not a money grubber following the herd mood

Ok. Vaccine passports at public events can be principled if consistent, but allowing freedom to choose is money grubbing and following an inconsistent herd mood.

Thanks for clarifying your stance.

"I think we're in a very dangerous political climate at the moment where the working class have felt abandoned by what they call the elite," he told AFP on a recent trip to Paris. "It has left them vulnerable to demagogues, to right-wing nonsense, fakes, snake oil salesmen."

Most posters here missed Sting's main point.

He probably aligns with Bill Maher's views.

Sting wouldn't support the Limousine Liberals in the US.

Unvaccinated are more likely to catch the virus, and are more invective when they have it.

It's funny how lemmings like you never update your talking points when new information comes out that counters them. Keep acting like a poor vaccine against something only ~6 times more serious than influenza is worth reshaping society and cutting people out of your life though, you lunatic.

WobotNov. 18  09:15 am JST

"The Bridge" was recorded during Europe's lockdowns, with musicians scattered around different locations and Sting in his English mansion.

He didn't find that too unusual.

He talks about 'elites' but does he have any self-awareness?

Also Clapton was left in agony for quite a while and couldn't do anything himself so if you can't understand why someone wouldn't exactly be happy about that I can't help you

Sting is a modern Renaissance man of rock. He's done about everything incl. music outside rock like symphonic and jazz. He's done some acting as well. Not everything he does I like (the 'Brand New Day' CD is meh and that track 'Fill Her Up' - yeeeccchhh!!!!!). But like other multi-talented/multi-genre/multi-media artists such as Bruce and Prince, the plusses far outweigh the minuses by a long shot.

Other artists have had to record 'distantly' during this lockdown/rockdown but that's it goes. Paul McCartney has put out two CDs recently where he played everything himself and mixed it up in his home studio. Both CDs entered the album charts at #1.

Fighto!Nov. 18  03:34 pm JST

Love Sting. Intelligent, cares about people and the environment and made some great records with The Police.

As for Clapton, clearly all that smack he banged up his arm has killed off his braincells. Ironic that he suddenly has a fear of needles.

I grew up with the Police and those albums they made stand up even today with their intelligent lyrical themes, experimentism (on the later ones) and sheer rock'n'roll oomph (with a sarcastic edge at that. No 'weepy-weepy' sediments from them). And I look forward to hearing Sting's new one too. I saw him twice, solo in 1991 and with Peter Gabriel as a duo in 2016. Always amazing and full of surprizes.

And as for 'God' Clapton, if he did shoot up junk and now all-ova-sudden he's 'anti-vaxx' all I have to say is, 'Wot's It To Ya'?