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Queen guitarist Brian May considers future House of Lords seat
– https://youtu.be/UBxi1lvQ2tc
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES
24 March 2015 by Ian Silvera
Queen guitarist Brian May spoke as he launched his Common Decency campaign ahead of the general election in May(IBTimes UK) R
ock legend Brian May has not ruled out the possibility of accepting a future peerage and sitting in the House of Lords.
But the 67-year-old Queen guitarist told IBTimes UK he would not take a place in the upper house of Parliament at present.
“In the present situation I can’t see it happening, but I’m fine with that – I’m happy being a common person,” he said. “[A peerage] would change things. Obviously if were a Lord I would have to start thinking ‘well, perhaps that would compromise my neutrality’. But, you know, I would have to take a view.”
May, who studied maths and physics at Imperial College London, also ruled out the idea of running to become an MP altogether.
He said: “I considered it but I think I can do a lot more good by being an activist as I am. I don’t want to step into one of the existing parties. We have great friends in all of the major parties but I don’t want to be an MP because I think that would restrict our movements.”
The comments came as the musician unveiled his Common Decency campaign, which is designed to encourage more people to vote and calls for radical reform of the UK’s political system.
May explained the campaign, part of the Save Me Trust, does not support one particular party and seeks to establish “true democracy” in Britain.
“I take great pride in that we are colour blind and we have badges of all colours in Common Decency,” May said. “We have friends and people that we trust in all of the parties and we have to honour that relationship.”
He added: “That’s what is necessary. We need to be colour blind and we need to stop encouraging this idea of juggling between major parties. The two-party system is antiquated and gives rise to the bullying that goes on which stops the democratic process really working.”
The rock star stressed Common Decency is not another political party and advocates “broad pillars” of political reform, including the “dismantling of privilege”, a proportional representation voting system and, among other things, public ownership of the banks.
The launch comes just weeks before the general election in May, with Labour and the Tories neck and neck (33% vs 33%) in Lord Ashcroft’s latest opinion poll.
May said: “On 7 May, we vote for a new Parliament. After five years of powerlessness, we all have just 15 hours of democracy. Just this once, we can seize the opportunity to change the system. If we all get up off our asses we can vote out the fat cats, once and for all.”