Thom Yorke, Tim Burgess, Franz Ferdinand and other music stars react to UK election results

British artists and bands share their views via social media

A number of famous musicians have taken to social media to react to the UK election results.

The British public took to the polls to elect a new government on Thursday (May 7), with the Conservatives making big gains and Labour and the Lib Dems suffering greatly.

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Writing on Twitter this morning (May 8), The Charlatans‘ Tim Burgess said “The Tories are like one of those shit bands that nobody actually admits to liking, but they always seem to be in the charts”.

Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke tweeted, “the City must be very pleased … (spits)”, while La Roux succinctly posted “I’ll miss the NHS”.

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Meanwhile, Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds added, “Labour were Tory Light. They should have been bold & truly left leaning. SNP smashed it & we know that’s why.”

See a collection of tweets below.

http://storify.com/nmemagazine/musicians-react-the-uk-election-results

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Meanwhile, British artists and bands including Muse, Savages, The Horrors, Drenge, Noel Gallagher, Emmy The Great and Young Fathers spoke about their political perspectives in last week’s issue of NME.

READ MORE: The full feature on Election 2015: Artists’ views on politics and protest songs

Speaking to NME ahead of his band’s new album ‘Drones’, Muse’s Matt Bellamy stated that he is “against the concept of party politics”, suggesting a new system of government in the process.

“I was thinking the other day we should start the Direct Democracy Party,” Bellamy told NME. “The way to play the existing system is to be an MP and say that ‘every vote I take in parliament, I will take an app vote from my constituents’. The argument that MPs should decide because they are better researched on the topic at hand, to me, really supports the old idea that the masses are not clever enough.”

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The Horrors frontman Faris Badwan, meanwhile, spoke of his disillusion with politics. Badwan claimed that voting is “for people who don’t have their own imagination”. He continued: “Politics doesn’t mean anything to me. The stuff that gets discussed on Newsnight isn’t relevant to me, and it’s pretty much not relevant to anyone. I don’t think you gain anything from voting.”

Badwan added: “I find it funny that someone would vote for another person, whether it’s on Celebrity Big Brother or as a politician, on the basis that they could imagine going for a drink with them. I just think voting is for people who don’t have their own imagination. It’s for a different generation. You’re not accomplishing anything. The problem is, my opinion on it isn’t fully formed – the only thing I do think is that, realistically, voting doesn’t make a great deal of difference.”

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