Waiting for pop stars to say something interesting can take a while. It could even be described as a pointless task. Similarly, finding a publican who would turn down the opportunity to serve David Cameron and George Osborne a cask ale would normally be impossible.

Yet multimillion-selling pop star Paul Heaton, formerly of the Housemartins and The Beautiful South, juggles both. But he's not in anybody's "gang." Contrary to popular belief, Heaton was never in Red Wedge - Neil Kinnock's band of musos who wanted to sing Labour into power in the 1980s.

Heaton turned his back on them when they baulked at the suggestion that the music industry should be nationalised. "Not very socialist that, is it?" he asks. "I still want to nationalise it."